Catalyzing Change
The Stanford CERC Impact Accelerator identifies and spreads health care solutions that have an outsized social impact, particularly for marginalized or vulnerable communities, and have a measurable impact on the cost of delivering high-quality care.
Our Work
Action Network
A dynamic network of multi-sector leaders and organizations united to improve care while reducing costs for marginalized communities.
Stakeholders may participate in many different aspects of the Accelerator depending on connection to the specific content area, organizational capacity, and fit for any given activity.
Spotlights
Solutions
Youth in Crisis Coalition
Sonoma County is leading an initiative to apply a ‘Systems Thinking’ approach to address the youth behavioral health crisis.
It is being led in partnership with a broad ecosystem of partners to create a coordinated multi-sector system of care. Pilot explores the use of ‘systems thinking’ as a multi-sector strategic planning methodology that can be applied to other counties/issues.
Event
Impact Accelerator Launch
In August 2025, the Stanford Impact Accelerator convened dozens of leaders from across the California safety net--from clinical medicine, academia, provider organizations, local agencies. and nonprofits--to invent the future of health care delivery for marginalized communities.
These leaders and their organizations have distinctive strengths that position them as ideal innovation partners: They’ve built bridges across traditionally competitive systems and sectors, established trusted relationships within their communities, and thrived despite limited resources. The result is a cohesive network of leaders joining together to collaboratively test and scale innovations and find bold solutions to health care’s seemingly intractable challenges.
Our Principles
This connected network will prioritize projects and solutions that allow for bold, multi-stakeholder action.
Care transformation should create value for marginalized communities and be governed by individuals, organizations, and communities at the point of care delivery. This creates equitable and creative solutions that can spread to other populations of focus.
Focus on systemic impact
Innovative solutions and initiatives should positively influence the underlying incentives, relationships, and power dynamics within the healthcare system.
Care transformation should create value for marginalized communities and be governed by individuals, organizations, and communities at the point of care delivery. This creates equitable and creative solutions that can spread to other populations of focus.
Interventions
System Illumination
Network Catalyst
Futures
Sustainability and Systems Feedback
Systems Thinking
as a Tool
What is systems thinking?
Beginning with community stakeholders familiar with the challenge, systems thinking methods are used to view the problem holistically, create a map to understand the interdependent and dynamic forces that contribute to the challenge, and identify opportunities for innovation that will have an outsized impact.
The Impact Accelerator uses Systems Thinking tools to facilitate multi-sector healthcare innovation for entrenched, complex challenges.
Explore our systems thinking work
