Commonwealth Fund launches plans to disrupt healthcare

The Commonwealth Fund has launched a program to cultivate emerging technologies, care delivery processes, organizational models, incentives and policies that have the potential to disrupt the health system in a positive way.

Its Breakthrough Health Care Opportunities program will bring together innovators, users, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and regulators, with the goal of facilitating the translation of these innovative ideas into practice.

“Think of the now-ubiquitous checklist, used in hospital operating rooms and intensive care units around the country to ensure the right care is provided at the right time. Only a short time ago, checklists were considered by many doctors to be an unnecessary burden, even a challenge to their authority. Today we know the use of checklists has saved many lives by reducing human errors that imperil patient safety,” according to the organization.

The program will focus on three areas:

• Engaging consumers in their healthcare through IT.
• Next-generation provider incentives that are grounded in behavioral change theory. 
• "Frugal innovations" from the developing world that may be transferable to the U.S.

Read more here.