At the Intersection of Healthcare Disruption

Published in

StartUp Health

10 min readOct 5, 2016

Craig Robertson and Jim Cleffi, Managing Directors at Accenture, talk about the intersection between their life sciences and healthcare clients and the startup and broader ecosystem. This dialogue is predicated on the book Healthcare Disrupted, co-authored by their colleagues Anne O’Riordan and Jeff Elton. They also discuss the impetus for launch of the Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge — part of a broader program designed to tackle some of the world’s largest healthcare challenges — bringing together industry leaders, investors and disruptors. . Startups can apply through October 21, 2016, here.

GUEST: Craig Robertson and Jim Cleffi, Accenture

HOST: Unity Stoakes, StartUp Health

LOCATION: StartUp Health Living Room, StartUp Health Village, New York, NY

Show Notes and Key Takeaways (Access the full transcript here).

An Exciting Time for the Health Tech Industry

[01:44] Craig Robertson: It’s an exciting time to be in the industry. I think the first time there’s a real convergence around driving towards patient outcomes across pharmaceutical companies, insurers, patient advocacy groups, integrated delivery networks, and institutions. For us, since we’ve got the opportunity to work across each one of those industry sectors, it’s a really exciting time.
[02:45] Jim Cleffi: I think, echoing Craig’s point, what’s most interesting is there’s a lot of change and shake up in roles and influence within the marketplace and I think we start to see payors behaving like providers, providers behaving like payors, and now the manufacturers of our life sciences clients are starting to act like service providers. It’s very non-traditional and it’s very exciting point and time right now.

Biggest Change, From the Life Sciences and Pharma Side

[3:25] Craig: I think what we’re seeing in terms of a major shift is from volume to value and getting away from really looking at large patient populations and really focus on the volume of the products that they’re producing to a greater specialization, personalization of medicine and, really, an orientation around the outcomes. And, I think there’s a whole host of reasons why they’re driving that direction. But, you know, at the end of the day the biggest shift that we see is in our discussions around how will this therapeutic and the set of services achieve the outcome by which will be measured in the industry for helping to achieve.
[04:07] Craig: And, to Jim’s earlier point, get compensated for it. And, you know, that brings a whole host of needs in terms of new services, new capabilities, new approaches, new business models for our clients. Many of whom have not operated traditionally in that space and it’s a good time for innovation right now.

Where Change Is Happening

[04:27] Unity: Are you guys seeing this change happened from the top down? Is it throughout these organizations? Is it some organizations or all of them? A sense of how broad this is and where it’s coming from?
[04:41] Jim: It’s definitely a little bit of a mixed bag, but what was most interesting at this point is it’s extremely transparent that markets are changing, regardless of if our clients are moving in that direction or not. I think from the top down we see some folks that are out ahead of the curve really transforming their business models.
[04:59] Jim: To Craig’s point really starting to move and have different deal constructs and product constructs and contracting constructs to try to test, learn, and evolve into the new model. We’ve seen some clients that are a wait-and-see, we’re going to test this out when the market moves. But two facts that we kind of really understand is digital technology is disrupting and fundamentally transforming the marketplace, so you can’t avoid that. And then the second thing that’s really fundamentally changing is the role of the patient. You can talk patient-centricity but when you start putting the burden of the cost to the patient. When you put, using technology to diagnose and to manage their own disease you’re starting to put burden on them with regard to their health IQ. Really giving them options and choices which they’ve never really had before per se. And now our industries are really starting to have to pivot to understand how do you go from being very brand-centric to very patient-centric. And that’s something you can’t avoid as well. So, I think people recognize it’s their pace of change really that we’re seeing. That’s the variable across our clients.
[05:55] Craig: I think to build on what Jim was saying from a top-down perspective we see as part of a survey we do every year in the patient services space eighty-five percent of companies that we surveyed, large life science manufacturers, indicated that they intend to increase their spending on patient service related activities. And that’s a leading indicator to us that they see the opportunity similar to the way that we see it which is as you pivot to the outcomes and pivot to the value you’re creating you’ve got to have services in addition to your product. And, how they’ve gone about that has been interesting. It’s been partnerships, collaboration, as well as organizationally standing up new organizations within their businesses to focus on patient services, to focus at the intersection of digital and technology. And that really creates an opportunity for the startup community and for integrators and innovators like us.

Open Innovation: A New Trend in the Industry

[07:40] Craig: Yeah we definitely agree that we see external innovation as a big driver for change within the industry and the company’s willingness and interest to do that is the highest that we’ve seen. I think, to that end, we certainly have the HealthTech Challenge that Accenture is partnering with StartUp Health to do and we see an interesting role for Accenture in that because we can help create the access to some of these large life sciences companies as well as help these organizations think about how to scale their capabilities. Because oftentimes our clients do, through business development licensing organizations, find very interesting complementary services, technologies to what they’re trying to do. The challenge really becomes how do you scale that? How do you integrate that with what you’re already doing? And for us we see that as an excellent opportunity for us to collaborate as the bridge between our existing large life sciences clients and the startup community for sure.
[08:43] Jim: Yeah the only thing that I’d add is that digital technology, technology in general, and the startups are coming up with such innovative ideas at pace and speed that it’s very difficult for some of these large and legacy organizations to really move at that speed. So, they’re really starting to pivot, to really truly understand, what’s going on in the market, who are the winners and who are the opportunities that are best fit for our organization. And, things are happening that the organization just can’t do it at speed with regards the new technologies and business model. So, I think, just keeping a lens and a scan on that.
[09:19] Jim: It really starts to show or foreshadow the next two to three years of what’s happening in the market, of which oftentimes our clients necessarily can’t keep pace with that level of innovation.

Advice to the CEO Regarding Open Innovation

[09:45] Craig: Yeah, I’ll start and maybe Jim can add here as well. I think that the first thing is to look at open innovation with a very, kind of, deliberate purpose and be thoughtful about how you can open up your own mindset to complementary sets of services and technologies that you may not be considering today. And, ensure that you’ve got an ongoing process for doing that. It’s not a one-and-done set of activities. You really have to maintain relationships with the startup communities. Understand where they’re making investments and see the proliferation of companies and investments that are happening and use that as input to how you think about the areas that you want to focus on. And, create that dialogue that oftentimes doesn’t exist today and do that, not in a one-off one brand director talking to one startup, you know, in Silicon Valley, but an actual institutional process and ongoing evaluation and partnership with companies that are bringing the next generation of innovation to the market.
[10:44] Jim: The one add I have to that is, one is, you know, to think a little bit more openly about the way you’re thinking of open innovation. I think it’s been historically a little bit more narrow. And what we’ll do is bring various salient examples, case examples where we do our own scanning within an organization. We bring innovative ideas and say, if you invented this in your organization you can pivot and expand your portfolio across a therapeutic area. You can advance your modern technology and digital capabilities in ways you never thought about and actually bring it to life for them where it opens their eyes. We can build some value behind that as well.
[11:20] Jim: The other area is really trying to get them to think open, much more open about it because a lot of these new companies are the disruptors. And, you know, you start to wait and take a wait-and-see approach and one bad R&D opportunity, one new competitor entered into the marketplace and your back’s against the wall. I think some of these new digital therapeutics didn’t exist three years ago. Now it’s a whole different category. And, you know, bring a digital therapeutics to the marketplace if you’re not paying attention it’s just gonna be a mess.

Advice to the Entrepreneur

[14:34] Unity: So, what advice would you share that, you know, there’s thousands of entrepreneurs — We call them Health Transformers — that watch this show. How should they be thinking? What should they be doing in order to set themselves up to really collaborate with your partners, with your clients, and do it in a smart way?
[14:58] Jim: Having been in this position, you’re the CFO, the CEO, or the product development, you know, BD person, I think that the challenges in the startup, you want to make sure you’re funded and you’re operating and you’re building out your product, and you’re running the business of the business, but at the same time I can’t understate how important it is to get out and have conversations with some of these executives. Because, one, there is keen interest. More so than ever before. I think we just articulated that and an openness to do that. Two, a lot of these companies have funds that they may not have had in the past which can actually seed you. And then you can create new business models, you can do some beta testing, etcetera. They really get you from like zero to sixty. Extremely, extremely fast. But my only advice would be as I know that you’ve got a foot in running the business, but you gotta get out and have conversations with these folks, because they’re open and ready to have these discussions and sometimes it takes a little courage. Sometimes it takes relationships and access. And sometimes it just, you know, it just takes a little bit of guts to take it out there and do it, but, the other hand is out there reached out ready to do it with you.
[16:13] Craig: The other piece of advice I’d have is be deliberate and specific in the outcomes that you’re gonna drive as part of your innovation and your entrepreneurial endeavor and ensure that that’s lined up with at least one of the many players in the industry group. Does it benefit the physicians, benefit the patients? And what we’re seeing is really the things that are taking off and having scale operate at the seams between the different customers in the health industry. And, you know, ensuring that as you have those discussions and get access to the various players in the industry that you’re thinking about, here’s the deliberate outcome I have and how it lines up with what you’re trying to achieve. And that will require a broader mindset about the industry, not just the specific task that you’re trying to capture the marketing in.

A Startup Challenge: Access. Accenture’s Opportunity: The HealthTech Challenge

[17:01] Unity: So, you both mentioned a magic word, access. And one of the big challenges that startups often have is getting through the right door, getting access and one of the things we’re most excited about is our collaboration with Accenture’s HealthTech Innovation Challenge. You mentioned it earlier briefly. I’d like to talk more about that. What is it? How can startups get involved and let’s dig into that a little.
[17:28] Craig: Sure I’ll start. So, the HealthTech Challenge is really an opportunity to work with the startup community to answer a few key questions around what we see happening in the industry. How do you help me manage my data in a private and compliant way? How do you help me manage my health in a better way? How do you help me get access to the right information? And ultimately, you know, provide the services and products to achieve the outcomes. And so, the challenge really is out there around those four key questions and the opportunity is for the startup community to respond to the challenge and how their products and their ideals.
[18:06] Unity: Globally or just in the U.S.?
[18:09] Craig: To respond globally and your timing for this discussion is perfect because the deadline is actually October 21 for that. And it’s an interesting series of activities that each one of the participants and entrants will have, to be evaluated by an Accenture team, but also a series of judges from some of the largest industry players across life sciences and healthcare companies. And, will create the access that would be nearly impossible, I think, for some of these startups to create on their own. There’s more information about that.
[18:46] Unity: Where should entrepreneurs go to learn about this?
[18:49] Craig: Yes. If you go to Accenture.com/lifesciences you’ll see a entry form and more information about it. And we’re very excited about it, because in addition to some evaluation sessions that we’re going to do in New York and in London in the November and December timeframe, they’ll be a capstone event out of the JP Morgan conference in San Francisco in January, which will really enable some of the finalists to showcase their capabilities and their ideas to a very senior level audience.

Resources, Websites and Tools Mentioned:

[00:04] StartUp Health NOW!
[00:04] Accenture
[17:01] Accenture’s HealthTech Innovation Challenge
[18:49] J.P. Morgan 35th Annual Healthcare Conference 2017 San Francisco
[19:24] StartUp Health Festival

Related and Recommended StartUp Health NOW! Episodes:

At the Intersection of Healthcare Disruption

Written by StartUp Health