Carrum Health Wins Harvard Business School And Harvard Medical School Health Acceleration Challenge

"We are humbled and honored to receive this recognition from Harvard given the participation from so many leading players in the digital health space," commented Sach Jain, founder and CEO of Carrum Health. "The evaluation process was the most rigorous that we have participated in. Recognition like this validates the impact and scalability of the Carrum solution, which is systematically shifting the health care payment model to bundled payments. We thank the HBS-HMS committee for this prestigious acknowledgement."

The Health Acceleration Challenge is a "scale up" competition that focuses on compelling, already-implemented health care solutions and helps them to grow and increase their impact through powerful networking and funding opportunities. Since 2014, the Health Acceleration Challenge has received over 600 applications from 29 countries. Carrum Health's solution connects self-insured employers to top-quality regional healthcare providers through bundled payment arrangements. Their goal is to radically improve the health care experience and outcomes of patients, while reducing cost burden for both employers and their employees.

"Carrum Health's innovation addresses a critical problem in health care," said Robert S. Huckman, the Albert J. Weatherhead III Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. "We expect that Carrum Health's approach to broadening and simplifying access to bundled payments will play a key role in managing costs and improving quality in health care."

After a year-long selection process, a team of 24 judges comprising of clinicians, health care professionals, and academics specializing in health care and innovation, reviewed the applications and rated them based on the three Challenge criteria of impact, evidence, and dissemination, and narrowed the field down to four finalists. In addition to Carrum Health, other finalists were:

ADDICAID: An addiction wellness platform for patients, payers, and providers was founded by Sam Frons. Addicaid's AI-driven ecosystem streamlines the needs of people looking to help themselves or looking to help others with a personalized recovery app paired with engagement solutions for any professional looking to enhance the delivery of care.

OCHSNER HEALTH SYSTEM: A technology-enabled and precision-based model of care to proactively manage hypertension was developed under the leadership of Dr. Richard Milani. Ochsner's Hypertension Digital Medicine program engages both patients and providers as collaborators in gaining hypertension control, yielding superior clinical outcomes and greater patient satisfaction.

RADIAL ANALYTICS: An evidence-driven decision support platform to help hospitals and insurers reduce post-acute costs for shared-risk patients while improving outcomes. The Smart Placement™ solution developed by the company, which was co-founded by Thaddeus Fulford-Jones and Eric Weiss, is deployed for Medicare Accountable Care Organizations, Medicare Bundles, and Medicare Advantage patient populations. 

Finalists shared in a $150,000 prize endowed by Howard E. Cox, Jr. (MBA 1969), now an advisory partner in the venture capital firm Greylock Partners and a member of both the HBS Health Care Initiative Advisory Board and the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows.  In addition, each finalist had a case study written about them. Events were hosted in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York where more than 400 HBS and HMS alumni attended and participated in case sessions to share expertise and provide guidance to the finalists.

"We were extremely impressed with the caliber of the applicants we received," said Huckman. "The innovations being developed by these applicants are evidence of the strong desire within the health care industry to improve quality, reduce costs, and, increase value in care delivery."

ABOUT THE HBS-HMS FORUM ON HEALTH CARE INNOVATION 
The Forum on Health Care Innovation is a collaboration between Harvard Business School (HBS) and Harvard Medical School (HMS). Its purpose is to unite leading executives, policymakers, and academics in a cross-disciplinary exploration of innovative actions to improve quality, reduce costs, and, ultimately, increase value in the health care industry. In 2014 the Forum launched the Health Acceleration Challenge to identify and promote demonstrated health care innovations, and selected four finalists and one winner to share the Cox Prize. For more information, https://forumonhealthcareinnovation.org/

ABOUT HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
Harvard Medical School has more than 7,500 full-time faculty working in 10 academic departments located at the School's Boston campus or in hospital-based clinical departments at 15 Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals and research institutes: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Hebrew SeniorLife, Joslin Diabetes Center, Judge Baker Children's Center, Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Schepens Eye Research Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, McLean Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and VA Boston Healthcare System.

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SOURCE Harvard Business School