Laura Smith

 This blog post was originally posted on April 5, 2019 at Commonwealthfund.org. Recent research attributes the majority of health care spending to a small number of individuals, sometimes described as “high-need, high-cost” — the 5 percent of the population who account for 50 percent of expenditures. One way to improve care for high-need, high-cost patients, and make our health system more effective for everyone, is to identify promising health delivery and payment innovations from around the world and foster their adaptation in the United States to drive transformative, rather than incremental, change. As part of a multiyear effort, the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy and the Duke Global Health Innovation Center have partnered with the Commonwealth Fund to identify global and domestic innovations, from patient education initiatives to team-based delivery models, that can drive these changes.…

At the end of January, assistant director of programs Andrea Taylor spoke at the SDG Mashup hosted at Impact Hub Geneva in Switzerland. The purpose of the SDG Mashup on the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 3 Good Health and Well-being was to not only showcase leading innovations in healthcare that have impact on SDG 3, but to foster connections and collaborations between sectors to accelerate the achievement of SDG 3. This is a summary of her talk. If all it took to solve the sustainable development goal 3 (SDG3) were good ideas, we could all go home and celebrate; job well done. But as all innovators know, good ideas are not enough. The challenge ahead of us is to get these good ideas to market, to iterate and scale them, and then to…

 This blog post was originally posted on Feb. 1, 2019 at Brookings.edu. Health leaders and policymakers globally have a shared interest and commitment to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) by 2030. Health systems are responding to increased demand due to population growth, aging populations with complex conditions, or prior commitments to achieve UHC. Despite health gains in the last 20 years, problems are particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa. As economies grow to middle-income levels, they have to tackle communicable diseases while more people are living with non-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension. The burden of disease may be higher in low-income economies, but the complexity of this problem could well be the greatest in middle-income countries. Often, the results are escalating unmet need and in-country variation across geographies, gender, or socio-economic groups. While increased spending is generally needed, funding alone…

This year’s applicant pool represented global healthcare organizations operating in 109 countries. These organizations span multiple healthcare focus areas, legal structures, business models, care delivery settings, and funding mechanisms.  This blog post was originally posted on the Innovations in Healthcare website.Author: Kathleen Axelrod Our 2019 cohort applicant cycle is over and we've found 10 great organizations to join us! Every year our team dedicates a substantial amount of time and resources to source, scout, and recruit the best healthcare organizations from around the world. As a result, we’ve selected ten growth-ready organizations to support, continuing to drive impactful work that ensures diverse populations have access to affordable, high-quality care. This year’s applicant pool represented global healthcare organizations operating in 109 countries. These organizations span multiple healthcare focus areas, legal structures,…