Learnings for Accelerating Scale: Key Takeaways from 2018 Xcelerator Workshop
From measuring newborn heartbeats to delivering safer anesthesia for obstetric emergencies – the range of promising products, technologies, and services advanced by Saving Lives at Birth (SL@B) Innovators has one overarching theme: reduce maternal and newborn mortality. Despite their common purpose, however, SL@B innovators face diverse challenges in moving their innovations to scale. The Duke Global Health Innovation Center and VentureWell are partnering with the SL@B program to provide Accelerating SL@B, a program tailored to offer additional support and resources for innovators who have grants to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes through the SL@B program. The Accelerating SL@B team held the Xcelerator workshop in Nairobi, Kenya from May 29 – June 1, engaging SL@B innovators in strategic thinking about their challenges to scale. While common struggles include identifying a…