By Lisa Fratt
What can innovators do to work with investors and industry to move an idea toward commercialization? Speakers at the upcoming Global Pediatric Innovation Summit + Awards, hosted by Boston Children’s Hospital, have some simple advice: Don’t think your innovation has to be sexy.
Health care is plagued by problems that aren’t necessarily sexy or compelling, says Mandira Singh, MBA, of AthenaHealth, who will speak at the Summit’s Mobile & Digital Health panel. More than many other industries, it still depends on outdated technology: for example, it’s the only industry that continues to rely on fax machines. “These are small problems that need to be fixed,” Singh said recently at a Boston Children’s Hospital forum.
Instead of focusing on everyday challenges, innovators often think far out into the future—to where they think health care will be in 10 years. That can be a trap: While looking to future needs is important, solutions need to build bridges between the problems of today and those of the future. Singh counsels simplicity: innovators should stay focused on the patient and on helping providers boost efficiency and productivity.
“For decades we’ve thought that every new shiny machine or every new pill constitutes an innovation,” says Ezekiel (Zeke) Emanuel, MD, PhD, former health advisor to President Barack Obama and a keynote speaker at the Summit. “But we should not call them innovations just because they’re new. True innovation has to do one of four things: lower health care costs, improve longevity, improve quality of life or reduce side effects.”
