Health IT, Hospitals, Startups

MedStar Health adds Health for America fellowship, 1776 partnership

MedStar Health has integrated Health For America fellowship into its Institute for Innovation as well […]

bigstock-Business-people-collaborate-to-28350953MedStar Health has integrated Health For America fellowship into its Institute for Innovation as well as partnered with startup incubator 1776. The Institute began mentoring the fellows last Fall.

Madhura Bhat and Dr. Kapil Parakh co-founded Health for America fellowship program in 2012 as a standalone nonprofit organization, but the MedStar Institute for Innovation dates back to 2009.

The fellowship class focuses on a different chronic condition each year. The fellowship’s pilot class in the Summer 2013 focused on childhood asthma, but last year, the first full year of the program, focused on Congestive Heart Failure. Eventually, it may shift to a broader category beyond a chronic condition such as aging or patient safety, according to Jeffrey Collins, the director of external alliances for MedStar Institute for Innovation.

In a statement Parakh said the point of the fellowship program is to “instigate new approaches to complex healthcare problems in a sustainable, repeatable way. Through our partnership with MedStar and MI2 we quickly realized the exponential power of joining forces with an organization whose mission and resources will significantly shorten the time to real impact.

The current class of fellows have focused on Type 2 diabetes. They spent three months shadowing practitioners at the MedStar Diabetes Institute and A. I. DuPont Nemours Children’s Hospital, Wilmington, Delaware, and worked with experts at MI2.  summits and educational events.

“We first educate the Fellows on the basics of the US healthcare system, then introduce design thinking and lean startup methodologies. The Fellows then dig into the chronic disease area, immersing themselves in patient simulations,” Collins said.

Each of the fellows also adopted a patient profile as part of a patient simulation segment designed to give them additional insight into the patient experience.

Amanda Newman, who was one of the fellows, offered a glimpse at their experience. “We tested our blood sugar, planned meals, and counted carbohydrates. We managed the ins and outs of our medication regimes—a level of complexity matched only by the challenge of fitting diabetes management into our busy schedules.” They each blogged about the experience here: Amanda, Jake, May, and Dan.

This year they will present three core solutions. Later, they will narrow down to one leading concept to push through the final stages, including prototyping and initial testing – with the expectation that the solution may change substantially through this process. The goal is to end up with a product or services that we can continue to build out even after the fellowship, according to Collins.

MedStar’s partnership with 1776 gives the fellows a physical workspace but also provides them the means to network with other entrepreneurs, access mentors, and attend educational sessions and speaking events. It will also offer a source of feedback and guidance.

The fact that the fellowship is now part of an extension of MedStar Health and through it affiliated with 1776 gives it some powerful allies. The new year has started off with plenty of doubts about the ability of hospitals and health systems to gain long-term success with producing digital health startups. It will be interesting to see whether the fellows can use these resources to help advance the goals of healthcare reform and challenge that perspective.

The Institute is currently accepting applications for the Health for America Fellowship’s 2016-2017 class. The deadline is February 29. Click this link for more information.

Photo: BigStock Photos

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