The end of the year is a time for reflection, and 2017 has given us much to reflect on: all that we have accomplished, where we see opportunity for change, and where we hope to take CHMI this year.
Over the past seven years, The Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI) has become a go-to resource for innovators, international development agencies, funders, accelerators, and incubators and researchers looking for evidence and knowledge on emerging health innovations. We have continued to document the universe of health innovations via our database and disseminate new evidence about what works in the health innovation space. We have also grown our portfolio of learning activities that foster adaptation of promising health innovations. Seven years since our founding, CHMI continues to serve as a resource center and vehicle for collaborations with health innovations ecosystem players.
This year, the CHMI team spent a great deal of time thinking through our unique value proposition. We collaborated with internal and external partners to conduct an internal programmatic review and used this information to refine our strategy and leverage our value proposition to increase our impact. We managed all this while continuing to deliver on our promise of being a global resource of knowledge and evidence on emerging and relevant health innovations. Our hard work paid off, and we are pleased to announce that Department for International Development (DFID) and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) see value in our vision for the future and will continue to financially support CHMI.
Our Goals for the Year
We want to enable more…
Evidence. Our stakeholders see value in our case studies, and we will continue to provide them. This year, we will disseminate more synthesized evidence about health innovations from academia, policy makers, funders, and innovators. We will work hard to identify the best ways to disseminate this information to our stakeholders (audiobooks, anyone?). If there are mediums you prefer, let us know!
Amplification. Over the next year we’ll do more to identify, promote, and strengthen promising innovations in healthcare through our Database at a Glance series, and database analysis reports that are targeted to suit the needs of our stakeholders. We will be paying particular attention to emerging markets and geographies that are underrepresented on our database.
Opportunities. We will be sharing more funding and learning opportunities with our stakeholders through our website.
Connections. This year, we will leverage our online platform to foster connections among our stakeholders though various peer learning communities of practice.
Links. We are brainstorming new ways to collaborate with internal R4D teams to expand the CHMI collaborative and adaptive learning program and develop stronger links with the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN).
And a greater commitment to…
Quality assurance. We will prioritize quality over quantity, and continue to implement measures that ensure the quality of the programs listed on our database. Expect a cleaner, more up-to-date database in the new year.
Here are some of the things we accomplished in 2017:
Evidence Generation and Dissemination
- We assisted several stakeholders in leveraging the CHMI database to source emerging innovations including, Johnson & Johnson Corporate Trust, LGT Impact, Evdeva, and Frontier Health. With our help, these stakeholders utilized our database to identify trends in the industry and opportunities for investment.
Learning and Adaptation
- We hosted the 2017 CHMI Learning Exchange in collaboration with Nigeria-based regional partner Solina Health. Fifteen organizations, representing seven partnerships, received a grant of $8,000 USD to learn from each other, and pilot new operational processes, training materials, and tools.
- CHMI also hosted a collaborative group of four partnerships that focused on quality improvement. The collaborative group participated in a kick-off meeting in Lagos, Nigeria and a closeout meeting in Nairobi, Kenya where program managers shared their experiences implementing quality improvement strategies, brainstormed solutions, and learned from other organizations that had had success in Nigeria implementing quality improvement strategies. Participants shared best practices and lessons learned from their partners in the learning exchange, and they shared their own experiences and expertise in public private partnerships and workforce capacity building.
- Read the blog from Solina Health staff, Joy Nwizu and Ebun Satubo, which details the kickoff meeting for The Exchange in Lagos and provides some insight about how organizations can continuously improve quality within their initiatives.
- Some of the organizations that participated in the Learning Exchange wrote about their experiences as well. View those blogs here.
We also created the following knowledge products:
- Adapting What Works in Primary Care: A Getting Started Resource Guide for Program Managers
- The document is the latest in a line of tools meant to help strengthen the adoption and adaption of promising innovations. The resource, developed collaboration with programs participating in the Primary Care Adaptation Partnership, summarizes lessons and best practices identified by non-state health organizations. Program managers can use the resource guide to identify specific aspects—or “active ingredients”—of a promising primary care delivery model, and strategically adapt those key aspects to their own program or context.
- Intermediaries: The Missing Linking on Improving Mixed Market Health Systems
- The research brief, which provides guidance for intermediaries, policymakers, donors, and other organizations interested in better understanding how to effectively address the key challenges of fragmentation in health systems, points to an opportunity for key health systems leaders to encourage the formation of effective intermediaries. Through networks of providers, intermediaries help small scale providers more easily engage with government, contract with vendors, and improve care that responds to patient needs. CHMI has already shared the report through other HANSHEP funded platforms, including the Joint Learning Network for Universal Coverage (JLN) and the Health Systems Hub, as well as Devex and the Inclusive Business Hub. UCSF will be conducting follow up research that will identify five case studies of intermediary organizations from various locations around the world. The report is currently in draft form and will be finalized in early 2018.
- Integration of Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Services with Primary Care: A Review of Challenges and Opportunities
- The report is based on a series of qualitative interviews with over 30 health organizations profiled on the CHMI database and presents evidence for greater integration of primary and maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) care. The report also includes suggestions for programs who seek to integrate primary care services into existing MNCH services. Look out for the report in early 2018!
- Innovative Initiatives from the Private Sector: What have been the experiences? What opportunities lie ahead and how can they be harnessed more effectively? These questions are explored in a book chapter written by CHMI team members, Donika Dimovska and John Campbell, with The Graduate Institute in Geneva, “Universal Health Coverage (UHC): Innovation, Equity and the New Economy of Health”
- The chapter draws on findings from an analysis of the CHMI database, and highlights how private sector innovation can be harnessed to achieve UHC. Content from the chapter will be shared in 2018 as an updated health market analysis of private sector innovations in low- and middle-income countries.
Thank you for contributing to the diverse CHMI community, we’re excited for what the future holds! Feel free to drop us a line to tell us how we're doing or just say hi, we love to hear from you. We wish you nothing but the best for 2018!
