An Interview with Nancy Barrand, Sr. Program Officer, RWJF
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July 3, 2007
Liz Wainger: Why did RWJF’s Pioneer Portfolio decide to undertake a competition on disruptive innovation in health and health care? Nancy Barrand: This competition is important for several reasons. LW: What kind of entries are you looking for? NB: We’re not just looking for innovation but rather for ideas that are disruptive and provocative. There are lots of ideas that are creative and innovative, but not all of them would meet the challenge that Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen puts forth about ideas that transform entire ways of doing things. We’re not asking that every entry meet every criterion of his definition of disruptive innovation, but whatever innovations are entered need to elaborate on what makes them disruptive in relationship to what else is occurring in the field. For instance, a disruptive innovation may actually end up being more costly than current systems or options, but the changes it sets in motion may hold tremendous value in terms of providing what consumers want. We’re looking for innovations in all shapes and sizes. There are lots of examples of disruptive innovations today. Outside of health care, a few that come to mind are Amazon.com, which moved book purchasing from the bookstore to consumers’ desktops and proved the power of e-commerce, and Apple’s iPod and iTunes, which changed the way we purchase and consume music and videos, and created a whole product culture that consumers crave. In both of these cases, the disruption altered the market and provided consumers greater control and cost savings. In health care, some disruptive innovations include Greenhouse, a model for transforming the nursing home industry that provides a community-based, small home model for skilled nursing care that would otherwise be provided in an institution. The Greenhouse business model transforms how we think about where skilled nursing care can be provided and it changes the culture in which it is provided, dramatically transforming the experience for patients. Another disruptive innovation is nurse midwives who completely disrupted maternity care, giving women more control about where and how they deliver their babies. LW: How do I know whether my idea is an example of a disruptive innovation? NB: Ask yourself several questions. The competition addresses the fact that health and health care services historically have been provider-driven and procedure-centered, treating patients as passive participants. Entries should aim to recast patients as consumers and more active agents in managing their health and health care. How do your ideas shift the locus of care from the expert, highly skilled provider toward the empowered patient? Does it challenge the system to meet consumers' interests in managing their health and health care in ways that are more affordable, more accessible, simpler, and/or more convenient. And has the idea gone beyond a pure conceptual stage? There has to be a proof of concept, something that exists in the real world that you can point to. It’s got to be more than an idea on the back of an envelope. When thinking about your idea, remember that a disruptive innovation isn’t about solving a problem alone but whether there is a new approach to the problem itself. Usually we see a problem and throw more money at it. What we want to do is rethink the problem and, by doing so, come up with a whole new solution. The problem may, in fact, be small but could be a linchpin to bigger change. LW: Who should enter? NB: Anyone can enter—people inside as well as outside of the health care arena, so long as the idea can make a profound impact in health and health care. These ideas could come from a variety for sources--technologists, consumer groups, medical personnel, research centers, or entrepreneurs. People who take a broad look at a given area in health care or people who are experts in a given field are good sources because they know their field well and can build upon that knowledge. LW: Is the competition only open to people in the US? NB: The competition is open to entries from around the world. Winners of the competition can be from anywhere in the world and the prize money can go anywhere in the world. In addition to the recognition and prize money that winners of the competition receive, the Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has set aside a total of up to $5 million that it may invest in promising ideas that emerge from the competition. These funds can only support ideas from organizations based in the U.S. and its territories. The Pioneer Portfolio will review the entries and may invite some to submit a proposal directly to the Foundation for potential funding. As I noted earlier, this competition provides a means for us to find ideas that we might not otherwise find and to connect us to people that we may not know, and who may not know the Foundation. Disruptive innovations hold the promise to drive significant positive change in what is essentially a broken health and health care system. That’s why we’re continually pushing to expand the ranks of innovative thinkers who may offer bold solutions that improve people’s health and help them get the care they need. » login or register to post commentsEmail this |
