Scaling health innovation

Partnerships were at the center of the day’s discussion, and the “no one can do it alone” narrative was echoed by various panelists throughout the day. “Now that our devices are in over 15,000 clinics across 23 countries, we’ve learned even more how critical partnerships are,” said Nithya Ramanathan, CEO and co-founder of Nexleaf Analytics, a nonprofit that designs sensor technologies.

Some vaccines are incredibly sensitive to temperature, for example, and it’s a complex set of partners that need to come together to ensure safe delivery, she said. “You need the private sector, fridge manufacturers, temperature monitoring device manufacturers, third-party logistics providers. ... You need the ministry of health, the ministry of finance, you need health care workers, you need fridge technicians,” she said. “Our approach when we enter a sector is very holistic — we look at the entire picture and ask ourselves, ‘How are we going to solve this problem?’” Ramanathan said.

For Zipline — a company delivering lifesaving products such as medicine and blood by drone — partnerships are at the center of its business model. “We are operating in countries where, oftentimes, their national health systems are public-private partnerships,” said Brittany Hume Charm, Zipline’s head of global partnerships.“If we want to plug into that and enable more access across those countries, then we need to be bringing a way for each of those partners to actually get involved.”

Souleymane Sawadogo, general manager of global health at Parsyl — a company providing technology for global health supply chains — said funders and donors need to take risks with startups. “The technology that we have can really save the world or make a difference, but we have to find the right ecosystem, the right partnership — we can’t do it alone,” he said.

Ensuring that all partners have a clear understanding of the role they’re expected to play is also crucial. “You have to be clear on what the ask is. You cannot go to the private sector — in this instance, the big tech companies — without a clear, crisp ask about what role they can play, what’s in it for them, how much risk it is,” said Dr. Naveen Rao, senior vice president of health at The Rockefeller Foundation, when announcing the foundation’s new partnership with Medic Mobile.

Throughout the day, discussions emphasized the crucial role of government in ensuring the success — and especially the sustainability — of any project.

Speaking about how to mobilize more money for global health, Dr. Mary-Ann Etiebet, lead and executive director at MSD for Mothers, stressed the importance of making sure that government priorities are well understood and that when private capital is introduced, it supports those goals.

Dr. Florence Duperval Guillaume, Haiti country director at Chemonics International and a former minister of health and acting prime minister, spoke about the need for organizations to communicate and work in close collaboration with ministries of health.

“When you come to a country, don’t just do a presentation to the ministry and say it’s going to work,” she said. “You need to take time to really sit down and technically present your project in order to give the minister part of [the] responsibility of your success or your failure … [and] make them accountable for your success.”

Last year, Novartis signed a memorandum of understanding with Ghana’s Ministry of Health to roll out a program to screen and treat sickle cell anemia. “I cannot overemphasize the importance of getting government buy-in,” said Dr. Patrice Matchaba, group head of global health and corporate responsibility at Novartis. “There must be an MOU signed either by the president or the prime minister and the CEO.”

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