BIF partners with Cincinnati hospital to reduce preterm births

THE BUSINESS INNOVATION FACTORY and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital have teamed up to develop a new
THE BUSINESS INNOVATION FACTORY and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital have teamed up to develop a new "human-centered" health care model to reduce preterm births, BIF founder Saul Kaplan announced Thursday.

PROVIDENCE – The Business Innovation Factory has partnered with the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to improve the health outcomes of low-income infants and children.

The partnership was announced in BIF’s monthly newsletter Thursday morning.

Many of the current approaches to lowering preterm birth rates aren’t working, said Saul Kaplan, BIF founder and chief catalyst. BIF’s goal is to develop a “human-centered design” focused on the experience of the patient that will be more successful at reducing preterm births.

America ranks 131 out of 184 countries in terms of premature birth rates, according to the March of Dimes, a national nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies.

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Through the end of this year, BIF staff will interview expecting mothers, mothers who have given birth to preterm babies and other women of reproductive age to understand their health experiences. The goal is to develop a solution over the next several months and begin testing it at the beginning of 2014.

BIF’s ethnographic, “bottom-up” research approach differs from traditional market research tools such as quantitative questionnaires and surveys, Kaplan said. BIF staff spends time with patients and observes them in order to “really get into the shoes of the customer,” he said. Throughout the research process, BIF uses storytelling to share its findings and allow the community to contribute feedback.

Leaders from Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center reached out to BIF after learning about the group’s work in Dallas at the Children’s Medical Center. BIF has spent the past year out in Dallas’ community with the goal of developing an entirely new primary care model designed around the citizens, Kaplan said. The group will soon test a new patient-centered model for wellness.

“We’re not going to fix our current healthcare system by tweaking the current model,” he said.

The current model is institution-centered and based on treating the sick; the new model needs to be focused on wellness and staying healthy in the first place, Kaplan added.

BIF is looking for partners like Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center and the Children’s Medical Center in Dallas that are willing to experiment to develop this new health care model.

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