Institute For The Future

Open Health applies the principles of open innovation to the global health economy. It encourages the opening up of a firm’s boundaries, resulting in extraordinary collaboration both inside and outside the firm. Sources of innovation move from traditional in-house R&D units to a range of entrepreneurs, startups, academics, university labs, and independent scientists around the world. Open Health is a new business strategy for health companies that provides a framework for recasting business models and innovation systems, and for rethinking the boundaries of health itself.

Two tools from IFTF’s Health Horizons Program can help companies navigate this landscape—the Open Health Map of Disruptive Innovation (SR-1117A) and its companion report, Open Health Toolkit (SR-1117B). The Open Health Map shows the larger context of forces driving open innovation in the global health economy. The Open Health Toolkit provides an overview of key issues you will need to address in adopting Open Health, details of a six-step process we developed to help you craft Open Health strategies, “how-to” exercises that help you think through each step of the process, and Ten Principles of Open Health to help guide your innovation process.