Innovation as the prescription for many diseases

Healthcare services provision follows a pathway of complex adaptive systems. This means that the various components and variables of a healthcare system interact differently in different situations and result in different overall results. Innovative thinking centres around the ability to take a step back to review this interplay using a “bird’s eye view” and creating solutions that match problems.

In public healthcare, and especially in emerging countries, there has been a myriad of sustained efforts at improving the health of populations through different approaches for various disease burdens. This has had mixed results.

Certain countries have innovative thinking through the application of scientific methodologies interwoven with resilient artistry to create copiable solutions to longstanding problems.

One such has been in Rwanda where drones are used to deliver life-saving blood and blood products to needy patients. This application has been extended to the delivery of disease-preventing vaccines. Kenya, too, has not lagged. It has and continues to showcase various mobile telephony-based solutions to healthcare problems.

These solutions such as Carepay’s M-Pesa-based MTiba, increase payment transparency and democratisation of healthcare, aspects that have hitherto been missed in public healthcare systems.

Innovative thought leaders create healthcare organisations and solutions that ascend to the zenith and most importantly, impact lives.

Is innovative thinking easy? No! Is it risky? Certainly yes! The good thing, however, is that innovative solutions can be “lab tested” through the creation of minimal viable products before scaling up. This creates room for returning to the drawing board.