Innovating in healthcare is a challenge. Integrating different participants in the ecosystem, striving to improve processes and the quality of life for people, without losing control of care routine is no easy task. That because, unlike other areas of the economy, the effort in this case serves a primarily social, rather than financial, function.
In recent years, Insper has strengthened its ties with the healthcare sector, seeking new partnerships with both public and private institutions. This effort has led to the formation of a consortium with Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (HCFMUSP, freely translated as University of São Paulo Medical School’s Teaching Hospital) – the largest hospital complex in Latin America –, through its innovation arm (Inova HC), and with Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz (Oswaldo Cruz German Hospital), a leader in high complexity healthcare services.
During the formal signing event of the partnership held on the morning of February 28th at Insper’s headquarters in São Paulo, which is available on Insper’s YouTube channel, Marcos Lisboa, President of Insper, stated: “You have the problems, and our mission is to contribute with solutions. The healthcare sector’s regulation is one of the most challenging in the world. In Brazil, the system is still poorly designed, leading to inefficiency. There is a lot to be done.
Attending the event, José Marcelo Amatuzzi de Oliveira, President of Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz, highlighted the positive prospects of the partnership. “This consortium has great potential. What I am looking to is complementarity. We have Insper’s intelligence, the economic models developed and analyzed by the school, and its ability to implement technologies that can help us scale,” added Oliveira.
“The physicians have the ideas and the engineers put them into practice. The innovation is multidisciplinary”, underscored Giovanni Cerri, president of HCFMUSP’s Innovation Executive Committee. “We need to develop solutions that are appropriate for the reality of our people, and that can improve the quality of life provided.”
Eloisa Bonfá, the first female director of USP Medical School in its 110 years, said the search for partners with complementary areas of expertise leads to excellence. “Hospital das Clínicas is a complex with 2,400 beds. The people on the front line have ideas, but they cannot put them in practice. This project only has reasons to succeed. The initiative helps us play our part”, added Bonfá.
The consortium aims to combine the experiences of a public hospital, a private hospital and Insper engineering and business areas to develop technological solutions to healthcare problems.
The initiative follows the concept of open innovation in five strategic areas:
• Healthcare economics;
• Healthcare data management and analysis;
• 5G connectivity, applied to remote operation of exams and test environments;
• Bioengineering;
• A comprehensive education and training program, which includes hospital management and training in the use of new tools resulting from the knowledge generated by the consortium’s innovative projects.
As Marco Bego, Inova HC’s executive director of Innovation, explained during a panel on healthcare innovation moderated by André Lahóz Mendonça de Barros, Insper’s executive coordinator of Marketing and Communication, the partnership begins with the planned expansion of a model for remote operation of exams such as CT scans and MRIs.
This is an initiative currently being carried out by Inova HC, which will now be supported by Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz to remotely operate the machinery at USP’s Hospital das Clínicas complex, using Insper’s expertise to develop a scalable business model that aims to facilitate access to quality healthcare in Brazil.
“The arrival of 5G has unlocked many possibilities in healthcare,” said Bego. “We want to pilot the use of remote equipment in both public and private systems. In many cities, equipment is only active for part of the day because there is no one available to operate it during the other period. Insper can help us put together the technological and business model aspects.” This is a pioneering and ambitious initiative, according to Bego. “We call it a consortium because the partnership is open and will not end with this initiative. We will develop projects that transform people’s lives.”
During the panel, Carolina da Costa, Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz’s Executive Director of Education, Research, Innovation, and Digital Healthcare, emphasized that innovation can help the healthcare sector address various bottlenecks. “There is a significant imbalance in access to healthcare between state capitals and smaller cities in the interior. Over 75% of people in Brazil do not have access to private healthcare. At the same time, last year, HMOs recorded losses of almost BRL 3.5 billion.”
Given the situation, it is critical to ensure the continuity of the public healthcare system and provide quality care at the lowest cost, according to Costa. “The bottlenecks to innovate are of several natures. To deal with them, it is fundamental to act collaboratively, as part of a strategy of perennialism and search for quality,” added Costa. “With the consortium, we are pooling forces, expertise, and vocation.”
In the opinion of Paulo Furquim, Insper’s Dean of Teaching and Learning, the partnership also brings benefits from the point of view of professors at the institution. “Our differences and areas of expertise are complementary. There are direct benefits in our teaching careers. It is important to produce relevant and transformative knowledge. Experimentation is the necessary input to produce knowledge,” stated Furquim.
The partnership, which is now gaining momentum, builds upon several initiatives previously undertaken by the three institutions. “We have a recent history of projects developed in partnership with both Hospital Oswaldo Cruz and Hospital das Clínicas as part of Final Engineering Projects (FEPs),” said Carlos Valente, a Mechanical Engineering professor and course coordinator at Insper. “These projects are developed by teams of graduating engineering students, addressing real-life problems faced by partner companies and seeking to analyze and prototype solutions.” (Watch a video showcasing some of these Final Engineering Projects.)
In fact, in 2022, a project was conducted with Hospital Oswaldo Cruz whose goal was to create a low-cost system to find wheelchairs in the hospital areas. At about the same time, a FEP was developed in partnership with Hospital das Clínicas’ Instituto do Coração (freely translated as Heart Institute) to study alternative thoracic drainage solutions capable of bringing more security, portability and monitoring of the drained fluid, in addition to becoming a viable alternative to be used on the public sector’s Sistema Único de Saúde (Unified Health System). “Both projects produced very interesting prototypes, and the consortium will represent a way to give continuity to the development”, said Valente.
USP Hospital das Clínicas Technological Innovation Center (Inova HC) connects entrepreneurs and resources to create innovative healthcare solutions that are more efficient for managers, physicians, and patients. To do so, it operates on three fronts: In.cube (idea incubator), In.pulse (business accelerator), and In.pacte (impacting people by supporting the development, maximization, and scalability of businesses).
Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz, on the other hand, is a leading high-complexity medical center. In 2022, it celebrated 125 years of providing patients with access to high standards of quality and safety in healthcare, as certified by the Joint Commission International (JCI), the world’s leading healthcare accreditation agency. With its renowned medical staff, made up of more than 4.7 thousand physicians, and one of the most qualified patient care services in the country, its installed capacity is 806 beds, 583 of which are for private healthcare and 223 for public healthcare.