Brown2020

Last week I spoke at the On Lok Lifeways Conference on October 22, 2008 in San Francisco, entitled “Sustainable Long Term Care: Ethics, Technology and International Perspectives.” The organizers asked me to draw insights from my experience in developing new models for chronic care as the founder and former CEO of Health Hero Network, and to compare that to what I had learned while traveling in Rwanda with Partners in Health last year. Here is my presentation.

In the most innovative models of care on both continents, health care providers have discovered that delivering better care with fewer resources can be possible with a proactive approach to supporting and monitoring patients at home rather than waiting for the inevitable complications of neglect. On both continents, healthcare providers have discovered that technology can be a useful tool to improve the effectiveness of care providers and to increase rather than replace personal touch.

In the United States, our healthcare system too often still penalizes rather than rewards prevention, especially in the largest fee-for-service system, Medicare. When it comes to innovation in disease management and prevention, we claim that we “can’t afford it,” while in a much poorer country in the heart of Africa, the government and the health system are working together to embrace innovation in home and community-based care because they can’t afford not to do it.

We have something to learn from innovations arising in places like Rwanda, where necessity truly is the mother of invention. Learning from such innovations can help us expose some of our own false dichotomies that too often have become an excuse to stifle innovation.

Read more »

Here are the slides from Steve Brown’s keynote presentation at the Bio-VC BIT Life Sciences’ Bio-Venture Capital Forum 2008, Dalian China, October 11, 2008. The Presentation discussed how to create a winning Life Sciences Innovation Strategy in an Era of Scarcity.

Abstract:

In the last century, technological innovation was propelled by a race to conquer nature and spread a modern lifestyle premised on an unspoken belief in unlimited resources. Now we find with ourselves with depleting resources and unsustainable systems for healthcare, energy, agriculture, water, and the environment. As Plato wrote over 2000 years ago, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” The great unmet needs of the current century relate to sustainability: How can we create sustainable systems for quality healthcare, agriculture, energy, and other sectors? These challenges are uniquely appropriate for innovation in life sciences, with new solutions enabled by the convergence of biotechnology and information technology. With the new challenges of our time, a new generation of entrepreneurs, scientists, and inventors will be inspired to apply their energy and ideas by starting new ventures. This talk will describe an entrepreneurial approach to life sciences innovation and will discuss how to create and foster an innovation culture targeting the great needs and challenges of our time.

Read more »