Being an innovator is never easy. But tackling the needs of patients and health care providers in underserved communities – in the United States and around the world – is especially difficult. The idiosyncrasies of the health care sector, the contextual barriers found in resource-constrained environments, and the already difficult-to-implement innovation process make entrepreneurship in this sector time-consuming, expensive, and risky.
The COVID-19 pandemic underscored and exacerbated these challenges. From India, to Africa, to parts of the US, lower-resource communities were deprived of adequate access to essential health technologies including diagnostic testing, oxygen therapy, and vaccinations. Reimagining global health has never been more important.
To support the efforts of entrepreneurs from around the world to improve the health of the world’s poor in this critical moment in time, we are highlighting the work of Stanford’s Global Health Consortium for Innovation, Design, Evaluation, and Action (C-IDEA). Funded by NIH grant 1 RC4 TW008781-01, researchers at Stanford spent ~18 months capturing lessons in global health innovation. The resulting case studies, organized into six interrelated categories focus on the successful design and commercialization of healthcare innovation products and services.
Identifying and Validating Needs
Consure Medical I: Translating a Need into an Actionable Path Forward
After watching a colleague struggle with the care of his mother when she was affected by fecal incontinence, the Consure Medical team began investigating this…
Design that Matters: Designing Contextually Appropriate Products
Incubators can prevent infant deaths from hypothermia, shorten hospital stays, and reduce the rate of neonatal complications that can lead to lifelong illness and disability…
The JaipurKnee Project I: Getting the Need Right
When a team at Stanford University accepted a challenge to design a low-cost prosthetic knee joint that could be produced locally for use in the…
Understanding Market/Stakeholder Dynamics
CycleBeads I: Building Acceptance for a Simple Idea
To help address the issue of unplanned pregnancy and maternal mortality in the developing world, researchers at the University of Georgetown’s Institute for Reproductive Health…
Diagnostics for the Real World I: Addressing Stakeholder Resistance
Diagnostics for the Real World (DRW), a for-profit spinout from the Diagnostics Development Unit at the University of Cambridge, is focused on manufacturing and commercializing…
d.light II: Market Research and Prototyping in Remote Regions
d.light design is a for-profit social enterprise whose purpose is to create new freedoms for customers without access to reliable power so they can enjoy…
Life Force Kiosks II: Engaging Local Talent
Life Force Kiosks is a nonprofit that aims to reduce preventable waterborne diseases like typhoid, cholera, and diarrhea to save lives in the most vulnerable…
PlayPumps International: Gaining User Buy-In
Trevor Field, a retired British businessman and outdoor advertising executive, was deeply moved when he observed women and girls in rural villages of South Africa…
Getting to a Market-Ready Product or Service
AdaptAir: Developing and Commercializing an Accessory Versus a Stand-Alone Product
In resource constrained settings, bubble CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) is emerging as a more affordable treatment option for children with acute respiratory infections. However…
Brilliance I: From Prototype to Product Company
When team members at D-Rev — a U.S. nonprofit technology company with the mission to improve the health and incomes of people living on less…
Consure Medical II: Developing a Regulatory and Clinical Strategy to Support Global Growth
Consure Medical is committed to developing a solution that solves the problems inherent in existing fecal incontinence treatments yet is simple enough for a motivated…
DoseRight I: Moving out of the Lab
The Rice 360° Institute for Global Health Technologies seeks to design and implement technologies that improve health and reduce poverty. Beyond Traditional Borders (BTB), Rice…
DoseRight II: Transitioning to High Volume Production
When 3rd Stone Design, a product design, strategy, and development consultancy, licensed the DoseRight Syringe Clip out of the Rice University Beyond Traditional Borders (BTB)…
The East Meets West Foundation: Expanding Organizational Capacity
The East Meets West Foundation (EMW) is an international development agency with the mission to transform the health, education, and communities of disadvantaged people in…
Inspire: Evaluating a Transition to Product Development
Globally, pneumonia kills more children than any other illness. In developed countries, pneumonia and other acute respiratory conditions are treated via mechanical ventilators. In resource-constrained…
KickStart II: Overcoming Manufacturing Challenges
KickStart was founded by Martin Fisher and Nick Moon to design tools that would enable Africa’s poor to launch and sustain profitable businesses. Its first…
Mulago Foundation II: Building More than Just a Product or Service
The Mulago Foundation is a private foundation focused on the prospect of creating a better life for the world’s poor. Concentrated in rural settings in…
Respira Design: Complex Requirements for a Simple Solution
To help address the burden of childhood asthma in developing countries, Respira Design created an asthma spacer that was produced from a single sheet of…
Sales, Marketing, and Distribution
CycleBeads III: Implementing Too Much, Too Soon
To help address the issue of unplanned pregnancy and maternal mortality in the developing world, researchers at the University of Georgetown’s Institute for Reproductive Health…
d.light III: Building Credibility and Trust
d.light design is a for-profit social enterprise whose purpose is to create new freedoms for customers without access to reliable power so they can enjoy…
Gradian II: Marketing to Multiple Stakeholders in a Complicated Field
After observing too many unnecessary injuries and deaths caused by surgeries that were interrupted or canceled due to the unavailability of anesthesia, Dr. Paul Fenton…
Life Force Kiosks I: Reporting and Accountability
Life Force Kiosks is a nonprofit that aims to reduce preventable waterborne diseases like typhoid, cholera, and diarrhea to save lives in the most vulnerable…
KickStart III: Marketing to Hard-to-Reach Consumers
KickStart was founded by Martin Fisher and Nick Moon to design tools that would enable Africa’s poor to launch and sustain profitable businesses. Its first…
Maternova: Bringing Together Buyers and Sellers
Maternova was founded in 2009 as a mission-driven for-profit organization with two main objectives: (1) to provide an online knowledge platform that would allow health…
PATH I: Building a Direct Sales Force
In late 2006, the PATH Safe Water Project received a $17 million grant from the global development unit of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation…
PATH II: Demonstrating Products in Rural Areas
In late 2006, the PATH Safe Water Project received a $17 million grant from the global development unit of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation…
Phoenix I: Generating Preliminary Sales
Phoenix Medical Systems was founded to manufacture an incubator designed specifically to address the needs of low-resource healthcare providers in India. Initially its founder, who…
Phoenix II: When Partner Sales Fall Short of Expectations
Phoenix Medical Systems was founded to manufacture an incubator designed specifically to address the needs of low-resource healthcare providers in India. When leaders from a…
PSI II: Changing Perceptions and Behaviors
Population Services International (PSI) was founded in 1970 as a nonprofit organization focused on improving reproductive health in developing countries using commercial marketing strategies. Over…
SafePoint I: Stimulating Adoption
After reading a newspaper article that predicted the spread of HIV through medical syringes, Marc Koska committed himself to addressing the threat of unsafe injections…
SafePoint II: Sustaining Adoption
After reading a newspaper article that predicted the spread of HIV through medical syringes, Marc Koska committed himself to addressing the threat of unsafe injections…
Defining a Viable Business Model
Anacor: Neglected Disease R&D Within a For-Profit Model
Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a for-profit biotech firm founded in 2002, which focuses on discovering, developing, and commercializing novel small-molecule therapeutics derived from a unique…
Brilliance II: Achieving Impact Through Licensing
When team members at D-Rev — a U.S. nonprofit technology company with the mission to improve the health and incomes of people living on less…
CycleBeads II: Creating a Dual Market
To help address the issue of unplanned pregnancy and maternal mortality in the developing world, researchers at the University of Georgetown’s Institute for Reproductive Health…
Embrace: Deciding on a Hybrid Structure
While attending Stanford, the Embrace team developed an idea for an innovative infant warmer to help low-birth-weight infants. The early prototype looked much like a…
Gradian I: Spinning Out a Commercial Entity from a Nonprofit Foundation
After observing too many unnecessary injuries and deaths caused by surgeries that were interrupted or canceled due to the unavailability of anesthesia, Dr. Paul Fenton…
IDRI: Neglected Disease R&D with a Nonprofit Model
The Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) was founded by immunologist Steve Reed in 1993 as a nonprofit global health research center dedicated to applying advances…
Impact Review: Sustaining a Good Idea Without a Standalone Business Model
While enrolled in a course focused on entrepreneurship, a team of Stanford students set out to create a platform for developing-world healthcare providers that would…
The JaipurKnee Project II: Scaling up the Business
When a team at Stanford University accepted a challenge to design a low-cost prosthetic knee joint that could be produced locally for use in the…
KickStart I: Delivering Enduring Solutions
Having observed too many development projects that appeared successful at first, but then failed as soon as the development agency moved on, Martin Fisher and…
Mulago Foundation III: Choosing a Legal (and Capital) Structure
The Mulago Foundation is a private foundation focused on the prospect of creating a better life for the world’s poor. Concentrated in rural settings in…
PATH III: Addressing Affordability Issues
In late 2006, the PATH Safe Water Project received a $17 million grant from the global development unit of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation…
PSI I: Taking a Service Model to Scale
Population Services International (PSI) was founded in 1970 as a nonprofit organization focused on improving reproductive health in developing countries using commercial marketing strategies. Over…
Securing Adequate Funding
Diagnostics for the Real World II: Raising Funds for a Niche Solution
Diagnostics for the Real World (DRW), a for-profit spinout from the Diagnostics Development Unit at the University of Cambridge, is focused on manufacturing and commercializing…
d.light I: Securing Early Funding
d.light design is a for-profit social enterprise whose purpose is to create new freedoms for customers without access to reliable power so they can enjoy…
KickStart IV: Measuring Impact
KickStart was founded by Martin Fisher and Nick Moon to design tools that would enable Africa’s poor to launch and sustain profitable businesses. Its first…
LifeStraw Carbon for Water: Sustainable Funding for a Public Health Intervention
Vestergaard Frandsen (VF) is a for-profit company that operates under a humanitarian entrepreneurship business model. Committed to supporting the achievement of the United Nations Millennium…
Mulago Foundation I: Rigorous but Realistic Measurement
The Mulago Foundation is a private foundation focused on the prospect of creating a better life for the world’s poor. Concentrated in rural settings in…