Duke Medicine's IPIHD Seeking to Support Innovators in Healthcare Delivery Across the World

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Apr 05, 2012, 04:24 ET

DURHAM, N.C., April 5, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The International Partnership for Innovative Healthcare Delivery (IPIHD), a support corporation of Duke Medicine, invites healthcare innovators and entrepreneurs globally with operational healthcare delivery models to apply to join the IPIHD Network for support in scaling and expanding.

IPIHD believes that the achievement of global access to cost-effective and high-quality healthcare is a critical component to reducing healthcare delivery inequities in the world. As such, membership is free to healthcare innovators.

Innovators with active operations can apply to join here: http://www.ipihd.org/joining-ipihd/innovators

Innovators who apply and are accepted into the Network are eligible for support and mentoring programs through IPIHD, including IPIHD's Innovator-Investor Conference. The inaugural Conference will be held on April 15th in Washington DC, and links healthcare innovators with investors in a one-day session including lightning-round pitches, interactive panels, success stories on attracting funding, and networking opportunities. Innovators around the world, including established operations such as Narayana Hrudayalaya, Vaatsalya, and LifeSpring, are attending.

The Conference is one of four core programs for innovators at the heart of IPIHD. Each program addresses one of the four challenges in scaling businesses identified through extensive research: access to knowledge and networks, organizational expertise, access to funding and capital, and regulatory barriers.

Hosted at Duke University and chaired by Victor J. Dzau, MD, the Chancellor for Health Affairs at Duke University and President and CEO of the Duke University Health System, IPIHD supports healthcare innovators in scaling and replicating their innovations through a select Network of healthcare innovators, industry leaders, and global organizations.

IPIHD was catalyzed by a two-year project at the World Economic Forum, supported by Duke University and McKinsey & Company, that studied transformative examples of healthcare delivery globally, examining both success factors and challenges to scaling and replication.

In addition to Duke, IPIHD is supported by organizations around the world including Apax Partners, AstraZeneca, Cisco, Medtronic, Rio de Janeiro Municipal Secretary for Health, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Current innovators engaged with IPIHD include LifeSpring (India), Sproxil (Nigeria), One Family Health (Rwanda), LifeQube (South Africa) and Medicall (Mexico).

"Although still in an early phase of development, IPIHD has achieved great momentum in its first year, and I believe it will have a real impact on healthcare delivery," said Dr. Dzau.

Since launching the application, innovators operating in over twenty countries have applied.

"The diversity and number of innovators interested in this unique opportunity to collaborate with IPIHD has been impressive. It's clear innovators see much value in establishing a network like this. We are excited to begin working with them closely," says Krishna Udayakumar, MD, MBA, Executive Director of IPIHD.