NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

It’s time! Innovations in Healthcare (formerly IPIHD) is looking for the best and brightest health care entrepreneurs to join our elite network. We know that NextBillion readers are some of the best curators of innovations and we’re asking you to help us find the very best examples of entrepreneurs working to improve health care delivery. What types of organizations are we looking for? It helps to look at the innovators currently in our network.

Our network includes 55 innovators operating in 47 countries and serving more than 7 million people. Spanning the full range of health care delivery – from rural and urban clinics, specialty hospitals, anti-counterfeiting devices, telemedicine technologies and safe birthing kits – our innovators have a reputation for excellence.

Nicolas Sowden, co-founder and managing director of Penda Health, a chain of high-quality clinics in Kenya serving low-income populations, said that Innovations in Healthcare is the single most useful network his organization has been a part of. “Please join,” he said. “But only if you’re a ridiculously awesome innovator.”

What makes our network so special? Our innovators currently include:

• A Gates-funded TB treatment organization with a 98 percent compliance rate and innovative e-compliance technology in India;

• A national health insurance product that provides full family health insurance in Kenya for $140/year;

• A cataract operation center in Mexico that provides surgeries for one-third the traditional cost;

• A shipping container clinic model that provides transportation workers with health services throughout Africa.

Why Should Entrepreneurs Join?

What Innovations in Healthcare offers entrepreneurs is a passport to new worlds. We connect our innovators to the people, organizations and information they need to strengthen their organizations and scale up their innovations so that they serve more people, serve people better and ultimately help expand access to quality, affordable health care. These connections might involve matching up our innovators with academic resources such as the Duke Global Health Institute’s Evidence Lab or even student intern support to assist with evaluation or business planning. It might be a targeted introduction to a corporate leader, fellow innovator or funder. It might be a chance to pitch your business model to a group of investors at our annual forum. We have strategic research partnerships to explore transferring models from one country to another and routinely find opportunities to showcase our innovators in events held throughout the world.

What Does Membership Cost?

Membership in our network is free. We were founded by Duke Medicine, the World Economic Forum and McKinsey and Company in 2011 and are financially supported by corporate sponsors and foundations.

Innovators are at the heart of our mission to increase access to quality, affordable health care around the world and we believe that by supporting our innovators, we are helping to strengthen health care delivery everywhere.

We are accepting nominations and self-nominations through Aug. 14. More information about what it means to be in our network and how to apply can be found here. Please e-mail Anne Katharine Wales at anne.wales@duke.edu with any questions.

To get straight to nominating your organization or an organization you think we should consider, please go here.

The Few, The Proud, The Innovators

Not to belabor the point about awesomeness, but we are quite selective. We are looking for organizations with proven solutions that are willing and ready to grow and improve. We expect this year to select about 10 of the very best organizations we find. I hope, dear NextBillion reader, that one of those 10 is someone that you nominate.

A version of this blog first appeared on the Innovations in Healthcare website.

Jennifer Cook is communications manager at Innovations in Healthcare (formerly IPIHD).