The Center for Care Innovations (CCI) and The Innovation Consultancy at Kaiser Permanente, with funding from the Blue Shield of California Foundation, and additional funding from Kaiser Permanente, are partnering to launch the third cohort of the Innovation Catalyst Program. Safety net organizations are transforming to meet the demands of our rapidly changing healthcare environment.
In order to build resilient systems of care and treatment for their communities, they need to find innovative solutions to the problems facing them today. Building on the experience and successes of our first two years of this program, we aim to grow a network of trained innovators in the safety net who can lead the fight to transform care. As skilled innovation champions, Catalysts will be a key resource to help other safety net organizations apply innovation and design skills and discover new ways to advance their work.
The 2015 Innovation Catalyst Program includes two components that will support the development and testing of innovative concepts in the health care safety net. First, CCI will expand our network of trained innovators who can apply innovation and design skills to projects across their organization and help the safety net as a whole start thinking in new ways. We are also looking to then support fresh and compelling ideas, developed by this cohort of Catalysts that have the potential to significantly improve care and lower costs.
- Selected Catalysts (two individuals per organization) will build skills in innovation/design thinking via in-depth training and coaching from gravitytank and The Innovation Consultancy at Kaiser Permanente. The organization will receive a $10,000 grant to offset staff time and travel costs to participate in meetings. Catalysts are required to identify a project or challenge in their organization to work on at the start of the program.
- After 3-4 months of applying design thinking skills to further explore a project or challenge, Catalysts can apply for a seed grant of up to $15,000 for an 8-month phase of experimentation and implementation of a compelling solution based on user needs. Projects in this phase will receive ongoing coaching and support throughout 2016.
