[This is part 2 of a series of posts based on the following: http://disrupthealthcare.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-different-kind-of-soup-building.html]
As with most delicious dishes, I prefer well-executed
simplicity. From my experience with running a healthcare software company and
working as a hospital-based physician, the following simple ingredients should
make for a decent health innovation incubator: Clinician innovators + Local
sandbox + External content experts.
Clinician Innovator
Clinician-innovators should have two basic skill sets which
are apparent in the name. A clinician could be any clinical care provider that
has their finger on the pulse of healthcare delivery. This could be an RN, NP,
PA, MD/DO, PhD, PsyD, PharmD, etc. As long as that clinician sees patients with
some regularity, they would bring up-to-date clinical insights to the value
ideation process.
An innovator would ideally have experience building a
product or service that creates social and ideally commercial value. A “failed”
entrepreneur is a great example because they’ve learned the ropes of building a
company and they don’t have to repeat quite as many mistakes on the second
attempt. An MBA should not be a prerequisite because on the ground innovation
experience can often be more formative than 2 years of didactic training and
networking (drinking games).
The clinician-innovator must have the majority of their time
protected to engage in the building the innovation, with a small fraction of
that time allotted for ongoing clinical practice to stay current on care delivery
pain points.
The clinician innovator should also receive enough pay to meet their basic needs. They don’t need to get rich while in the
incubator. But they need to be reimbursed sufficiently to not be distracted by
the need to consult or moonlight to live comfortably.
Finally, this position would be optimal for a
clinician-innovator that is early-mid career and post-residency training. The
timing would be similar to fellowship training in the typical career
trajectory of a clinician seeking subspecialty training. Hence, I would propose
we call this position a Clinical Innovation Fellow.
Local Sandbox
The next element of building an innovation incubator within
the walls of a hospital is the local sandbox. The entrepreneur would have
access to learn the local patients’ and providers’ pain points. And more
importantly, the clinical innovation fellow could easily test their proposed
solutions to those patients’ and providers’ problems. The fellow would have access to
local content experts within the host department. And, there would be a
multidisciplinary community of academic researchers accessible for guidance and
diverse perspectives. To ensure a balance between serving the local community
and scaling to global solutions, the following elements should be incorporated
into the incubator: 1) the tool/intervention is patient-centric, 2) a feedback
loop exists to patients, and 3) the intervention is outcomes focused.
External Content
Experts
External content experts would enable the ideas generated
and tested in the local sandbox to expand beyond the walls of the host
institutions. External experts could be developers, designers, and data
architects. They could be consultants or advisors, paid or unpaid. The could
temporarily or permanently be made internal to the incubator over time once
sufficient need and value was identified.
External content experts could be think tanks that provide
guidance on specific ares of expertise like readmissions, or service delivery
models, or reimbursement mechanisms. In addition to providing basic content,
they could serve as connectors to a broader customer based. This would be
particularly relevant to emerging technologies that stand to benefit payers or
pharma companies.
External experts could come in the form of legal counsel,
startup guidance, or fundraising mentorship. Law firms could provide pointers
on the regulatory implications of an innovation being built. Startup advisors
could reinforce the basic principles of lean development. Investors could teach
the value of a good one-liner, executive summary, and pitch deck.
With these basic elements, a hospital-based incubator can create
value to not only the target customer base, but also to the fellow, the host
institution, and the external partners.
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