Hospitals, Startups

No incrementalism, please: RWJF’s Pioneer group wants your radical ideas by Friday

Be brief. Be unconventional. Be radical. How often do you hear those instructions in healthcare? […]

Be brief. Be unconventional. Be radical. How often do you hear those instructions in healthcare? The Pioneer group at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation doesn’t want apps or incremental improvements for their Pitch Day. They want new visions of a healthcare world that makes sense and delivers good care. Everyone has a chance to submit one of those ideas for the chance to present at the Pioneer Pitch Day October 16 in New York.

The Pioneer group is my favorite part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Pioneer program funds cool ideas, instead of simply talking about “the next big thing” and making safe bets. They are researching the effectiveness of games. They funded the OpenNotes project, an example I want all my providers to follow.

You can submit a proposal to the Pioneer group at any time, but Friday is the deadline for anyone who wants to be at the first ever Pitch Day in October. Selected teams from the October Pitch Day will be invited to submit proposals to RWJF’s Pioneer Portfolio for future funding consideration

Currently there are 176 ideas under consideration. You have until Friday to add yours. Here are a few of my favorites:

Here is the Pioneer investment philosophy:

  • Identify and explore new issues and approaches.
  • Accelerate progress on issues and approaches that have significant potential to create breakthroughs in health and health care.
  • Support projects that use original, unconventional, or cross-sectoral approaches to create transformative change.

Here are some of the judges for pitch day:

  • Angel investor Esther Dyson
  • Rhode Island School of Design President John Maeda
  • Fast Company staff writer Ben Schiller
  • NPR science correspondent Shankar Vedantam
  • IDEO Life Sciences Chief Strategist Rodrigo Martinez
  • Games for Health co-founder Ben Sawyer
  • PatientsLikeMe co-founder and president Ben Heywood

Submit your idea today.

Veronica Combs

Veronica is an independent journalist and communications strategist. For more than 10 years, she has covered health and healthcare with a focus on innovation and patient engagement. Most recently she managed strategic partnerships and communications for AIR Louisville, a digital health project focused on asthma. The team recruited 7 employer partners, enrolled 1,100 participants and collected more than 250,000 data points about rescue inhaler use. Veronica has worked for startups for almost 20 years doing everything from launching blogs, newsletters and patient communities to recruiting speakers, moderating panel conversations and developing new products. You can reach her on Twitter @vmcombs.

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