Patient Care

Emerging Technologies Lab helps St. Luke’s stay on the cutting edge — with smart decisions

Four women speaking together in the Emerging Technologies Lab — St. Luke's Integrated Health Technologies director Molly Zimmer speaks with nurses who toured the Emerging Technologies Lab open house last fall.

By Chris LangrillLast Updated February 9, 2026

Test the waters. Kick the tires. Put it to the test.

Any of those phrases could appropriately greet visitors as they pass through the doors of St. Luke’s Emerging Technologies Laboratory. But one slogan, on a light bulb-shaped sign says plenty: “Always Curious.”

Sitting area looking out to hills with painted mural on one wall. — A waiting area at the Emergency Technologies Lab with the "Always Curious" lightbulb sign.

The lab opened in October 2025 with the mission of creating a space where St. Luke’s staff members could evaluate new technology and explore different workplace solutions.

The concept for the Emerging Technologies Lab was championed by St. Luke’s Vice President and CIO Reid Stephan, whose vision was to create a space where teams could safely explore and evaluate cutting‑edge technologies before making major investments.

“So, what we have now built is a very flexible, modular lab where we can quickly test and look at areas that are problems in our health system,” said program manager Lexi Jensen. “Through technology, we’re trying to advance the experience of our patients and our (workforce).”

A partnership was formed with IT services and solutions provider CDW, offering support from a systems‑integration standpoint while tapping into the latest, most practical technology solutions available. The new lab has shown immediate benefits.

“In the past, if we wanted to test something we would enter into a contract with a company and then implement it,” Jensen said. “That could end up costing us … and then we might later find out there are issues. So, this lab provides an opportunity for us to be good stewards. We can actually bring in clinicians and have them test things. So, we’re getting valuable, hands-on information.”

Patient Care

Emerging Technologies Lab helps St. Luke’s stay on the cutting edge — with smart decisions

By Chris LangrillLast Updated February 9, 2026

Test the waters. Kick the tires. Put it to the test.

The lab opened in October 2025 with the mission of creating a space where St. Luke’s staff members could evaluate new technology and explore different workplace solutions.

A replica of a hospital room in the Emerging Technologies Lab

Integrated Health Technologies director Molly Zimmer was instrumental in helping make the lab a reality. In the short time it has been open, she’s already seen a number of success stories.

“We’ve always known that clinicians are some of our most innovative people; they’re the ones who know what needs to happen,” Zimmer said. “They’re so excited to come here and get their hands on things.”

Aaron Murray, a solutions architect with an extensive background in technology, said the lab will ultimately allow St. Luke’s to stay up to date on the most recent advances in technology — in a controlled environment.

“AI and technology is improving at a really rapid pace — health care is no exception — so we need a place where we can test these different technologies,” Murray said. “And along the way we might save on some of the failure costs.”

Murray was impressed by a recent example of how the lab served St. Luke’s on a large scale.

“We went through (a request for proposal) for a new virtual-care system … basically, how we see inpatients virtually,” Murray said. “We were able to isolate a vendor that looked promising. We worked with that vendor to have them bring their equipment out to the lab. We set it up on our separate, segmented network that we have here.

“At that point, we brought more than 200 clinicians through, and they went through an evaluation and asked, ‘Are the boxes that we actually want to be checked being checked?’”

Two people speaking to one another. — IHT systems engineer Mike Getchell talking to fellow IHT team member Yutong Luo as they tour the Emerging Technologies Lab.

Most clinicians were pleased with what they saw.

“We used that feedback as a stepping stone to get final approval and buy-in on the project,” Murray said.

Jensen said future projects, both big and small, will be able to be vetted in a similar manner.

“It’s almost like a bake-off area,” Jensen said. “There are lots of times where one vendor looks bright and shiny, but we also know this other person does it, too. So, we’ve got multiples of the same thing in here and we’re going to put them together with the same criteria. And in the end, we’re going to rate them across the board and see who’s better.

“That’s not something we could do before.”

Zimmer highlighted that the lab’s model is uncommon in health care and she credited St. Luke’s leadership for embracing the idea and investing in its success. She added that the excitement reaches up to the highest levels of leadership.

“And it’s great our workforce is open to this,” Zimmer said. “People come in here and they light up. … I think we have a really awesome culture, and we wouldn’t have success doing something like this without that support.”

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