About
The Stanford Impact Accelerator aims to improve health care delivery while reducing the overall cost of carefor marginalized communities by identifying, developing, and spreading innovative health care solutions.
A Systemic Problem
The U.S. health care system is sick and expensive, and it is not meeting the needs of the people it serves. Our current system is prohibitively expensive yet fails to effectively serve those who need it most. It is fragmented, difficult to navigate, excessively complex, and patients encounter siloed services that prioritize reactive treatment over prevention. The environment is heavily regulated, risk-averse, and competitive, making it difficult to innovate. The payment structures do not support primary, preventative, coordinated approaches that could address both individual and population health needs effectively. As this landscape continues to evolve, the consequences fall disproportionately on marginalized communities and Medicaid beneficiaries. What is needed now are not incremental changes but disruptive, innovative solutions that can address these systemic challenges and scale to create meaningful, sustainable impact across the healthcare ecosystem.
- Alan Kay
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
Approaching Innovation Through an Action Network
The Stanford Impact Accelerator creates a dynamic environment for testing and accelerating innovative healthcare solutions by engaging with action-oriented leaders and organizations within the California safety-net. California’s safety net offers fruitful ground for innovation. These organizations have distinctive strengths that position them as ideal innovation partners: Leaders and organizations have established authentic, trusted relationships within their communities. They have thrived despite operating with limited resources. They have navigated and built partnerships across traditionally competitive systems and sectors. They also maintained comprehensive, longitudinal data sources that capture complex health patterns. Safety net organizations can implement rapidly without navigating multiple approval layers or regulatory barriers. Additionally, these organizations have established trusted connections and governance structures so they can co-create solutions with the communities they serve.
The Stanford Impact Accelerator provides a structure for community-based organizations, providers, payors, and policy makers to collaboratively test and scale innovations. This ecosystem brings together diverse expertise and perspectives, creating a powerful multidisciplinary network of leaders. By bridging silos between innovators, clinical leaders, researchers, policy makers, and funders, the Accelerator catalyzes collective action focused on strategic priorities centered on the needs of marginalized communities.
Structure of the Impact Accelerator
Portfolio of Solutions around Priority Themes
Recognizing the need to operate across multiple layers for successful innovation within health care, the Impact Accelerator creates portfolios of solutions that address a specific priority theme identified by the Action Network. These portfolios may involve a combination of point solutions, clinical solutions, or health system solutions. The Impact Accelerator facilitates partnerships, pilot testing, measurement, and funding across the Action Network and Hubs.
Action Network
A dynamic network of multi-sector leaders united to improve care while reducing costs for marginalized communities. This network brings together influential leaders from organizations positioned to drive meaningful change within their organizations and their sphere of influence, and committed to bold action. These leaders can contribute through multiple ways: direct participation in the Innovation or systems lab initiatives, engagement in convenings and knowledge sharing sessions, providing specialized content expertise, or creating agile pop-up networks around specific focus areas.The network leans towards action, and connections are cultivated and strengthened through collaborative activities with tangible outcomes.
Accelerator Hubs
A reliable testing environment to accelerate and spread healthcare solutions. Federally Qualified Health Centers, public hospitals, managed care organizations, health center coalitions, community-based organizations, and funders who are committed to working with early-stage startups, researchers, clinical innovators, and policymakers to test and scale innovation. These innovation hubs are connected to their clinical environments, patients, and communities to provide early feedback and an environment for piloting and scaling. The hubs are equipped with rich data sets and skills related to human-centered design, systems thinking, and pilot testing.
Funding
Backbone activities are funded by philanthropic and foundation support, and as part of the indirect cost of program activities. Programs and Initiatives are funded by foundations, payors, or investors who derive value or benefit from the activities.
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Jason Cunningham
Program Director
Impact Accelerator
