Reverse Innovation: When Disruptive Health Solutions Go West

Zipline drones populate the Rwandan skyline, portable electrocardiogram machines help doctors diagnose in clinics in rural India, easy testing lets cure children in Botswana. Beyond being brilliant medical innovations, at some point, all these technologies were brought to or should be applied to high-income countries after their success in their original settings in Africa or Asia – as they have been available for a fraction of the cost, they have represented a highly creative solution and/or the regulatory environment has allowed them to thrive. That’s what researchers call reverse innovation, and we tracked down the most prominent examples in digital health. Necessity is the mother of (disruptive) invention The idea of reverse innovation or as others called it “trickle-up innovation” and “innovation blowback” is connected to Clayton Christensen’s famous model of “disruptive innovation”. This encompasses a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up, eventually displacing established competitors. Reverse innovation twists the term and challenges the existing and hidden narrative in disruptive innovation whereby it is assumed that high-income countries ought to be the sole driving force for innovation. Although the name itself could still be refined as calling it “reverse” already assumes that it counters a more “natural” idea about the direction inno...
Source: The Medical Futurist - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Future of Medicine Portable Diagnostics Telemedicine & Smartphones Africa asia development digital health disruption disruptive drones empowerment Healthcare Innovation medical drones reverse innovation technology West Source Type: blogs