Takeda [TYO: 4502]

While programs aimed at improving access to healthcare funded by the private sector have been growing in number and in scope, studies have found that the resulting impact from these efforts has been difficult to determine. What’s become clear is that coordinated, industry[1]wide measurement of quantifiable outcomes to better track successes and failures has been missing . This was found to be especially critical in low- and[1]middle-income countries (LMICs) where most access initiatives tend to be focused, and outcomes also tend to be the most uncertain due to the lack of adequate infrastructure.

Understanding the importance of measurement, we worked with Innovations in Healthcare (IiH) team, a not for profit organization Co-founded by Duke Medicine, McKinsey & Company, and the World Economic Forum to build and test an open-source impact Access to Health Guidebook and Framework that could be applied by the wider ecosystem for broad use, and speaks to the realities of local healthcare systems. The Framework was designed to facilitate continuous feedback and engagement between implementors at every stage of program delivery, enabling partners and implementors to collectively identify the most important metrics to assess and continually optimize their impact on both the patient and the broader health care system. Takeda’s Blueprint for Innovative Access initiative, which aims to build local healthcare capacity and improve outcomes for patients living with non-communicable diseases, adopted this common evaluation framework in a pilot program in Meru County, Kenya, beginning 2019. The Framework provided a mechanism for measuring the impact of collective efforts and guide day-to-day decisions to improve outcomes for patients and communities.

Upon the completion of the Meru County pilot in 2022, IiH published the program’s first Collective mpact Report, demonstrating concrete, sustainable improvements in non-communicable disease management capabilities and patient survival. These included progress across healthcare system delivery capacity, disease surveillance and research to facilitate evidence-based decision making, increasing awareness and early detection for non-communicable diseases, and improving access to and utilization of health services among others. The collective Report also put forward five key themes to be sustained by local partners over time to optimize the delivery of care in Meru County going forward.

Select Impact Highlights: 2022 Blueprint for Innovative Healthcare Access Collective Impact Report Clinical Capacity Strengthening and Training for Health Workers

The outcomes and overall Blueprint approach have proven transferable and scalable with the approach successfully adopted in other programs across sub[1]Saharan Africa including in Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, and with the potential to be applied to other markets around the world. 

Innovation for the patient starts with us

As more and more partners across our industry recognize the need for a robust and collaborative approach, our learnings from these initiatives are also sparking internal innovation, allowing us to enrich existing frameworks to ensure activities and outcomes are measured with a patient-first lens and powered by actionable data. Inside our business we have now adopted a Health System Strengthening (HSS) Dashboard marking the latest milestone in our journey to drive more effective, smart impact measurement, providing a tool to visualize and track our impact in a consistent manner across the organization.

A key function of the HSS dashboard allows our activities to be measured against real, on-the-ground situations. This provides us with realistic data and feedback, which can then be utilized to inform future programs and partnerships, helping drive systemic, sustainable change, as well as drive continuous value creation.

Moving forward, driving wider adoption of collective measurement tools and smart data will be key to empowering governments and partners to optimize programs and ensure healthcare systems continue to deliver better outcomes for patients over the long-term.