The Health Innovators Show

The digital health movement has spawned so many solutions, which makes the process of innovating in the space more chaotic than ever before. How do we rise above the noise to create awareness and demand for our innovations? How do we make ourselves more appealing to venture capital? What are the biggest healthcare myths innovators should stop buying into? On this episode, healthcare industry consultant, and venture capital partner, Lisa Suennen shares on how innovators can overcome or work around the challenges that come with commercialization.    3 Things We Learned    Regulation and information are a huge barrier to successful commercialization There’s an imperfect marketplace and a disequilibrium in the sharing of information in healthcare. The patient has no information, the providers have less than they need, and the payers have the wrong kind. Additionally, healthcare is heavily regulated, and regulatory expertise, which many innovators don’t have, is critical.    Focus on numbers to appeal to VCs  Venture capitalists would be more willing to invest in people who really know their numbers. It’s less about telling them a story about the innovation, and more about showing its financial viability. But don’t jump into venture capital too quickly. If we get too far ahead with raising money but we haven’t done enough to validate our concept, we will waste money and give up ownership too early.     Understand how compensation works in healthcare One of the biggest mistakes innovators make is not appreciating how payment moves through the system, and how many hands an innovation passes before it gets to the patient. Going direct-to-consumer is almost impossible. It’s hard to get a patient to pay out-of-pocket for something they expect to be covered by insurance.  There is a noise in healthcare right now, and while there are opportunities for big companies to work with, invest in and partner with innovators, there’s also more chaos. If innovators want to succeed, it’s important to understand how the system is set up. Financially, the incentives of the various players are not aligned in healthcare. Patients, providers and payers are financially at odds. On the regulatory side, innovators have to become knowledgeable about the rules that govern innovation, and buying cycles are long so we need to be patient. To succeed we have to be clear on who is going to pay for our innovation and why. We have to come into healthcare innovation with the mindset of a coalition builder, because it’s impossible to succeed going in it alone.

For many healthcare innovators, one of the biggest challenges is managing everything that’s required in the commercialization process. There are so many factors competing for priority. it can be extremely daunting and distracting. How do we develop an innovation to solve a problem the right way? What kind of structures and methodologies need to be put in place? What are the most important things to focus on? In this episode, Aire Health CEO Stacie Ruth shares her transition from commercializing innovations in the corporate world to leading a healthcare startup. She shares insights into how innovators can increase the chances of market success.   3 Things We Learned  The problem we’re solving is key to successful commercialization One of the challenges innovators face is getting caught up in solving the problem without really considering if that problem is something the care community is seeking to solve. If the problem is not a priority for your target market, it can be a huge stumbling block even if we have a great solution.  Successful commercialization is about product and execution  Health innovators can’t solely focus on the product and expect to succeed. Commercial success is more strategy development and execution and less about the product. We have to focus on developing clarity around the problem we’re solving, the identity of our brand, the implementation team executing the commercialization, and stakeholder buy-in. Invest in opportunities for exposure and stakeholder interactions  It’s important to take time to get involved in innovations and events that increase exposure for our innovations. If we have a clear vision of our ideal business, and we can articulate that vision with a story, we need to start sharing that story. We’ll start getting enough feedback to iterate our strategy and better understand how we can solve the problems in healthcare. Successful commercialization starts with identifying the problem we’re solving and prioritizing the allocation of resources and capabilities. We can’t try to do everything. Once we have the problem clearly identified and we validate market fit, it’s about building the right implementation team and executing well. We have to align goals, people, resources and the greater market in which we’re playing. To hear more on Stacie Ruth’s perspective on successful commercialization, check out the podcast episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or get the full interview video on our website!

Many innovators lead with their technology in their creation process, and in the process they leave behind the other important building blocks of a strong business. How do we avoid building a business with a singular muscle? How can we deal with the biggest barrier to successful commercialization? How can we get physicians involved in the ideation process, and what difference can that make?  On this episode, we’re joined by the CEO and Chief Medical Officer of 98point6, Robbie Cape and Brad Younggren, who share their journey to commercialization and lessons learned.   3 Things We Learned  The biggest mistake innovators make  Many innovators lead with a technology and end up with that as the singular muscle behind the business. One of the things 98point6 got right is that they developed 4 core muscles in the business: the medical, technology, regulatory & compliance, and commercial muscle.   How to build relationships with physicians  When it comes to building strong relationships with physicians, we must look at doctors as a separate audience segment, understanding the problems they have and delivering a strong value prop to them as we would with any customer.  How to get into healthcare and win the favor of stakeholders  There’s a huge difference between coming into the healthcare industry as a competitor, and coming into the industry with the intention to find the right stakeholders and people and support their vision and goal. It’s more powerful to sit alongside the primary care community so that you’re not treated as a competitor.  Innovators often focus mostly on raising money and building the technology. They think the vision, mission, values, culture and employee engagement are things that can be built-in down the road. The problem is, they miss the benefits of building these things into the system early on. In order to successfully commercialize, it helps to be deeply integrated with the people who will eventually become your customers and pay for your service. You do that by thinking beyond the technology and considering the greater ecosystem and stakeholders who are critical to your business.

Healthcare innovators are usually in such a rush to get to market that they don’t take the time to create the correct framework for decision making and develop the right strategies. Usually, they employ a waterfall strategy, which makes them susceptible to failure. How can we implement incrementally, instead of taking a static approach? Why is it a huge mistake to lock down our strategy without making it flexible, iterative, and data-centric? How do we connect the insights between the disparate parts of the commercialization process? On this episode, we talk about why the waterfall strategy doesn’t suit the healthcare commercialization process, and why a “set-and-forget” approach is a costly mistake.   Success in healthcare commercialization starts with slowing down to wrestle with our assumptions. -Dr. Roxie Mooney   3 Takeaways The strategy for successful innovation is not meant to be static. We need an agile, iterative methodology that keeps up with the dynamic nature of healthcare.    The waterfall method is not flexible enough. Consumer needs, market trends, and competitors aren’t fixed. Our strategies have to account for that level of constant change.    Set a strategy that leaves options open. Just like Napoleon, one of the greatest strategists in history, we should be setting strategies that give us options and maneuverability. There’s no sense in sticking with a strategy even in the face of conflicting data. The decisions we make in healthcare don’t function in a vacuum. Because of this, healthcare innovators are up against a lot of challenges that can affect the commercialization process. The first step healthcare innovators can take to beat the odds is to have a framework for those commercialization decisions, from concept to launch and beyond.    Our strategy needs to reflect the dynamic and complex nature of the healthcare industry; and if we make decisions in the right sequence, we will avoid market failure, use our organizational resources well, and increase the profits of our innovations.

Many healthcare innovators underestimate what it takes for their innovations to achieve market success. What are the three lenses of innovation that health innovators must get right to increase their chances of success? How do these factors influence commercialization? On this episode, we talk about the three things innovators need to consider when bringing healthcare innovations to market.   Just because your innovation solves a real problem or is technically and functionally superior to competing solutions, doesn’t mean it will automatically reach commercial success. -Dr. Roxie Mooney   3 Takeaways  Desirability: innovators should ask themselves if the problem the product is trying to solve is a priority for the healthcare system. In order to find out if your innovation is viable, ask yourself if the product is worth it, and if you have realistic estimates of sales and revenue. Just because there’s a market for a solution, doesn’t mean it will be viable for the business. To determine if an innovation has feasibility, you need to have the resources and capabilities to build a competitive advantage and differentiation in the market.   If we can validate the desirability, viability, and feasibility of our innovation, we will be able to confirm product-solution fit and product-market fit. When we accomplish those two things, we will be able to move towards commercial success.   To learn about the Product Co-Creation Workshop at the Connected Health Conference, go to https://www.connectedhealthconf.org/boston/2019.

Are you targeting a health system for your innovation? Then don’t miss this episode! How does innovation affect the payer landscape and how do payer systems prioritize innovations and their resources? We got the inside track on how payers look at and engage healthcare innovators and how these priorities impact all stakeholders in the continuum of care. On this episode of CoIQ with Dr. Roxie, we’re tackling the question of internal development and overdevelopment of innovation versus external innovation solutions in the payer landscape.  Dr. Robert Groves, executive vice president and chief medical officer at Banner-Aetna will guide us through the pathways of proof points, case validations, the willingness to accept risk, and the knowledge of the path to “yes” that can transform innovations into active healthcare solutions.    Dr. Groves is a career critical care doctor who has seen it all— from start-ups to established clinical protocols. Through his experiences, he has developed a special focus on which payer products and services require internal development and which are best supported through external innovations, like yours. You’ll be blown away on the answers and how to get there. Tune in to discover strategic insights on how to increase adoption among health systems and maximize commercial success.

Healthcare innovators have to make a lot decisions in the commercialization process and each choice can determine the success or failure of the innovation. What are some of the pitfalls of bringing an innovation to market? What needs to change in healthcare to make innovation easier? Why is proof of efficacy and value so important to gain adoption? On this episode, I’m joined by the founder of The Health Care Blog and SMACK.health, Matthew Holt, who shares his point of view on why some innovations succeed, why some fail, and where the market is going.   3 Things We Learned The two main types of innovation One of the biggest issues in healthcare Why healthcare innovations get stuck before implementation   One of the main reasons why healthcare innovations fail to reach any level of customer acceptance and profitability is because the industry is a very unique beast to deal with. Healthcare innovators must consider the experience of the clinicians who will use the new solution. It’s also important for innovators and investors to expect and plan for the long sales cycles in healthcare. You also must know how your solution fits into the larger healthcare ecosystem. Ultimately, there are a lot of things that have to go right to reach commercial success and there are no short cuts to developing a winning commercialization strategy.

There are four times as many nurses as doctors in the healthcare field. However, input from nurses is often overlooked or ignored in the innovation process. How is leaving nurses, a valuable stakeholder group, out of the equation doing a disservice to the whole industry? What valuable skills and information do nurses bring to product development and commercialization? How can including nurses' insights optimize the product co-creation process?   On this episode, I’m joined by nurse-led innovation thought leader, author, and international speaker, Dr. Bonnie Clipper, who shares on the importance of including nurses in innovation and how to build innovations that succeed.   3 Things We Learned Nurse insights are more critical than you realize at all levels of innovation The viewpoints of physicians and surgical nurses are different from care nurses How nurses can help health innovators develop more commercially viable solutions   Nurses play a huge role in the healthcare system, and that’s why it’s so important to weave their input into every stage of the innovation process from concept to product development to commercialization. Nurses can’t be excluded if we truly want to transform healthcare and improve patients' lives. Technology is just one part of the solution — human input is also necessary. Their input can be the difference between the market success or failure.

Healthcare innovations play within a multi-sided market which adds a layer of complexity and difficulty a lot of other industries don’t have. What are some of the unique features of healthcare that innovators have to navigate? How do entrepreneurs balance between enthusiastic optimism and the realism of how the market works? What strategies can you use to beat the odds and maximize your ROI? On this episode, I’m joined by the founder and CEO Health Innovation Partners, Paulo Machado who shares on his multiple level experience with commercialization and how to decrease the 95% failure rate of healthcare innovation.   3 Things We Learned Healthcare innovators often have tunnel vision on their creation which is a mistake It’s so important to have the ability to pivot The difference between decision making in consumer and healthcare products A successful healthcare innovation has to work within the massive healthcare system that exists. Innovators tend to oversimplify the problems and facets of healthcare, and come up with specific point solutions as a result. But if you neglect the larger ecosystem, your innovation won’t be good enough, even if it’s really amazing. Remember, healthcare products aren’t a normal good and you don’t just sell to one consumer. You sell to multiple stakeholders, who aren’t always aligned in their goals. Always design your innovation with the whole system in mind.

When it comes to commercializing breakthrough innovations, how you position yourself in the category and the ability to find the right partners are key. How can you fund new innovations and overcome physician adoption challenges? How do you get the top healthcare leaders to support the innovation? What are some of the elements that can become barriers to market success?  On this episode, I’m joined by health tech investor, digital health innovator, and health systems operator, Sarah Sossong. She is one of Fierce Health’s “influential women reshaping health IT”, and she pioneered large-scale innovations from concept to mass adoption and national recognition. On this show, Sarah shares her insights and advice to healthcare innovators.   3 Things We Learned Language and messaging are key in the mass adoption of innovations Focusing more on the technology and not the problem you’re trying to solve affects your innovation How to make it easier for a physician to adopt your innovation There are many barriers to the adoption of innovation, and many of them can be mitigated by laying the right groundwork, and taking the right steps. Leadership buy-in, leveraging internal champions, and starting with a problem not a technology are some of the ways you can ensure the success of your innovation. Whatever you do, think long-term. Don’t just think about what you’re doing right now, think about the parts of the innovation that are the most scalable beyond the present moment or the pilot phase.