General Information
Instructor Bio
Zayna Khayat is adjunct faculty in the Health Sector Strategy stream at the Rotman School of Management (since 2012). She is the health futurist in residence with the Life Sciences & Healthcare practice of Deloitte in Canada, and is a growth advisor with global virtual care health tech company Teladoc Health. Dr. Khayat was previously the Future Strategist at SE Health, a national seniors aging and home care social enterprise. In 2017 she was on secondment in the Netherlands as Health Innovation Sherpa with the REShape Innovation Center at Radboud University Medical Centre. She co-founded the Dutch Health Innovation School which has now scaled to 6 regions of the Netherlands, and to Belgium. From 2014 to 2017, Zayna led the health system innovation platform at MaRS Discovery District. Dr. Khayat had an 11-year career in strategy consulting, first with the Boston Consulting Group’s Toronto office from 2001 to 2010, and then as an associate principal with SECOR/KPMG. She holds a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Toronto and Sickkids, with a focus on insulin action and diabetes.
Target Audience
Learners seeking to understand the drivers, landscape, barriers, models and future direction of health innovation* in Canada and globally.
*Health Innovation = new or better ways to create value in health and care. It does not mean technology or commercialization of R&D, although technology can be a key enabler to unlock value from health innovations. Technology commercialization, pharma, medtech, etc. are not the focus of this course, although the evolving roles of these agents in modernizing healthcare through innovation is incorporated at several points.
Format
- Weekly 2 hour sessions from 6:30-8:30pm EST (Wednesdays)
- 12 weeks, beginning Wednesday, 22 January and ending 9 April, 2025
- Friday Feb 28, 9:00am-1pm EST: innovation safari in the field [TBC]
Course Mission
The learner will:
- Understand what health innovation is, what it is not, the types of innovation, and how innovation is distinguished from other activities such as creativity, invention, commercialization, and quality improvement
- Explore why health innovation is an imperative for 21st century health organizations from multiple lenses – the patient, health providers, health delivery organizations, health systems, payers, regulators, academia, and private agents in industry
- Understand how to “do” health innovation – starting from a problem or idea, through to impact and value capture at scale. Learn, practice and apply the tools and methods health innovators effectively deploy, and what methods are appropriate for different contexts
- Explore how complex and regulated health care organization and systems drive innovation in their clinical, strategic and operational contexts. Understand how they are internally building capacity for “intra-preneurship”, and organizing for health innovation.
- Appreciate the systemic facilitators and barriers to capturing the full value from health innovation – with an emphasis on culture, policy, technology, business models and data flow
- Apply the frameworks and concepts of the course via two individual and one group assignment; and critically reflect on the course content via a learning journal
Course Scope
Innovation is now an imperative for our health and wellness as individuals and as a society. The course will use Clay Christensen’s book Innovator’s Prescription as well as select concepts and frameworks provided by the faculty to provide a theoretical understanding of what is happening in health innovation in Canada and globally. We will discuss live examples of how things are changing across many sectors and patient populations of the health sector and broader industry. Students will emerge with a robust and timely toolkit for how to think about innovation and to bring structure to the innovation process.
Through the use of one core textbook, relevant thought pieces in the literature, real world examples, field work, and guest speakers who are leading thinkers and practitioners in health innovation, the course will cover the following key topics:
I. Health Innovation Fundamentals –Why? -The Health Innovation Imperative – for patients, clinicians, health systems and governments/economies; What Health Innovation Is (and is not), Types of Innovation, including a deep dive on Christensen’s disruptive innovation theory (core text)
II. Health Innovator’s Toolbox – The health innovation process, and key tools, methodologies and practices that health innovator’s deploy in their work
III. Future of Healthcare (and Enabling Technologies) – where health and healthcare is going (trends, shifts); how and where exponential technologies are enabling new business models that were not previously possible; how the landscape for health innovation itself is evolving.
IV. Health Innovation Actors – Understand the Landscape and implications of Health Innovation from the lens of key players: Patients & families, Providers/health workforce, Delivery Organizations, Health Systems, Industry, Startups, Academia, Government, New Entrants and more.
V. Barriers to Health Innovation – systemic policy, technology, business models, data flow, and other barriers to health innovation adoption at scale; how innovators tackle these barriers
VI. Organizing for Innovation – different models that complex healthcare and life sciences organizations are adopting in order to build capacity to lead innovation in the new health economy
Evaluation and Grade Breakdown
| Component | Due Date | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Class Engagement Participation in class discussions, adding ideas/tips, full attendance, showing up on time, etc. | Ongoing | 6% |
| Learning Journal Reflection on learnings & insights related to the content from the past 3 weeks: ~500 words every 3 weeks | Sunday after Lectures on Weeks 3, 6, 9, 12 | 9% |
| Innovation Safari Report [Group] – visit or interview the innovation team at a major Canadian health organization. Write a report about their approach to “organizing for innovation” using the framework provided in class | In-Person Debrief: 1 Week after the Safari Final Report: End of Week 6 | 30% |
| Startup Critique Paper [Individual] – three promising local health tech or biomedical startups will pitch in our class. Using the Business Model Canvas and other tools/concepts from the class, make the case for which of the startups you would invest in if you were an angel or VC investor, and why you would not invest in the others | End of Week 10 | 25% |
| Healthcare New Entrant Assignment Individual – Using tools and concepts from our course develop an offering, business model and go to market strategy for a large company that is not currently in healthcare to enter the healthcare sector for one of 10 priority issues facing health systems. For example – a bank, a telco, a postal company, Shopify, etc. Demonstrate how you use key tools and methods for health innovation taught in the course: mainly, Christensen Disruption theory, Doblin types of innovation, barriers to innovation, design sprint + business model canvas | Proposal: Week 7 Final Paper: 2 Weeks after the Final Class | 30% |
Required Resources
Core text [selected chapters]:
- Clay Christensen, The Innovator’s Prescription