innovation centers Archives - OF DIGITAL INTEREST

Getting Cross-Industry Collaborations Right, Part 2: All About That Data

As discussed in the first post in this two-part series, new players from outside the traditional healthcare paradigm are joining forces with hospitals, health systems and other providers to drive unprecedented innovation. These unexpected partnerships are bringing new solutions to market and changing how business is done and care is delivered.

Many of these collaborations revolve around data and data sharing arrangements. Traditional health industry stakeholders such as hospitals and health systems (HHSs) are partnering with technology companies—both established and start-up—to develop and market digital health solutions that engage patients beyond the brick-and-mortar clinical setting. Digital health tools are making it easier for patients to receive care in a mobile setting and access their health data across various platforms and sources. These innovative partnerships thus hold out the possibility of delivering better, faster, more targeted care.

Addressing Community Concerns

At the same time, digital health collaborations can encounter challenges regarding data privacy and security, permissions and ownership. Historically, health data was housed in one place—within the health institution. But with the rise of digital health tools, health data has become ubiquitous, raising fears about how it may be used, aggregated and shared.

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Getting Cross-Industry Collaborations Right, Part 1: A Transactions Perspective

Healthcare is facing an age of disruption from new market entrants and players outside the traditional healthcare paradigm. Unexpected partnerships are bringing fresh solutions to market and changing how business is done and care is delivered.

Many of these new partnerships are arising in conjunction with innovation investments by hospitals and health systems (HHSs). HHSs have always been a source of significant innovation through research and other avenues, but traditionally this work has been largely decentralized. Today, HHSs are formalizing their innovation efforts and finding ways to capitalize on those opportunities—which are abundant, thanks to HHSs’ physician workforce, research infrastructure, and access to patients and their data. These centralized innovation incubators make it easier for non-traditional players, such as tech companies, to pool resources with an HHS and bring game-changing solutions to market in an expedited fashion.

Whether they occur through an innovation center, cross-industry ventures in the healthcare sphere are still in their infancy. As such, they pose a number of challenges that require careful planning and a flexible mindset.

Vet Your Opportunities Thoroughly

In today’s push for value-driven transformation, HHSs and other health industry stakeholders have hundreds if not thousands of opportunities for partnerships knocking on their door. Diverse players, from tech vendors to start-ups to private equity firms, are queuing up for a chance to participate in the burgeoning health sector.

Faced with these abundant—and often novel—opportunities, HHSs have the task of sorting through their options and developing an efficient process to vet, select and pursue them. Too many choices is a good problem to have, but HHSs nonetheless face challenges as they determine the best way to triage potential partnerships and ventures. Key infrastructure components at HHSs include education of and buy-in by governing board, development of investment guidelines that align with mission, and building the innovation structure and team (often with contributors who come from outside of “traditional healthcare”). Once that infrastructure has been established, the HHS will be able to evaluate and pursue innovative ventures better and faster, in turn bringing solutions to market and to patients more quickly.

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