Tony Meyer, President of the Board of the Directors for the HIMSS-NCA kicked off the first program of the 2014-2015 season with a resounding, “We’re going to mixed things up this year!” As President-Elect for next year, I will be working beside Tony to bring the chapter to new heights. This will include increased membership participation, timely and critical educational programming, volunteer opportunities and charitable activities. Last night’s topic: “Creating the Marketplace for Health Innovation: Public-Private Partnerships – Success Stories of Transformational Models” offered active dialogue and discussion with the audience of government staff, vendor community and business development leads from local Washington, DC companies. Senior leaders from federal agencies and organizations including the Defense Health Agency, ONC Federal Health Architecture Program, Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, Health Data Consortium and a well-respected Patient Advocate all shared their hands-on experience with public-private partnerships (P3).
Steven Hoffman, Scientific Program Manager, Research Partnerships at the Foundation for the NIH, opened the evening highlighting efforts at the Foundation for the NIH. The Foundation has been at the forefront of business and medical research innovation in terms of adopting the P3 model for specific initiatives (such as the Biomarkers Consortium, the recent Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP) initiative, and others). Each panelist shared their unique ways in which strategic and targeted P3s offer an alternative approach to fostering cutting-edge research and/or addressing population health needs, and how P3s harness government and private sector resources and capital to open new avenues for supporting innovation in health care. Some of the valuable keys they shared for a successful partnership include:
- Tackling a significant unmet medical need
- Applying a robust scientific rationale and design
- Pursuing a compelling economic premise
- Enlisting the support of willing, innovative partners (public+private)
- Securing sufficient funding
- Providing leadership (a champion)
- Engaging a trusted third party
- Committing the necessary time, dedication, sweat…and flexibility
The September program concluded with all panelists identifying numerous P3s as a mechanism by government to finance better healthcare infrastructure, biomedical research and clinical service delivery. They represent a solution, bringing private investment to healthcare in a beneficial model for private enterprise and resource-constrained governments.
Please plan to attend the October 16th program focusing on Health IT Acquisitions: Navigating the Needs and Requirements of the Program vs. Procurement Organizations. Don’t miss out!