Health development depends on the challenge of innovation – Health in Public

Suellen Pereira de Carvalho

The number of government initiatives to boost startups e GovTechs (startups focused on generating innovation for the public sector). Innovation, new technologies and digitization are important elements to gain scale and quality in public services, at the same time that they require investment in financial and human resources.

In the field of public policy, the issue of innovation is addressed under two central aspects: economic development provided by the warming of the ecosystem, investment and business generation; and the resolution of complex problems with the use of innovation, improving both the quality of services provided to citizens and the working conditions of public agents.

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare innovation was a challenge in the public sector. In 2017, health expenditures totaled 9.2% of the country’s GDP. The pandemic mobilized governments, companies and civil society in the search for solutions to fight the virus and its economic and social consequences. Public and private institutions needed to be quick in adopting technologies, to continue productive.

In health, the speed with which telemedicine was approved in Brazil was emblematic. In line with what happened in the world, the use of artificial intelligence to support doctors in the diagnosis of Covid-19 was also adopted in the country. Partnerships between governments and pharmaceutical companies, via ICTs (Scientific, Technological and Innovation Institutions), allowed the development of vaccines in record time.

The legacy of this mobilization of public and private agents to enable innovative solutions on a national scale already exists. There is a succession of recently approved legal instruments, which provide greater legal certainty to the public agent and enable agreements for the development of innovation. As examples, the National Innovation Policy (October 2020), the New Bidding Law (April 2021) and the Legal Framework of Startups (June 2021).

Despite advances in the pandemic period, significant barriers to innovation in healthcare still need to be overcome:

• high investment and risk: science and technology-based innovation requires high investment. The government must share the risks of developing these solutions, as occurred in the development of vaccines, in addition to creating incentives for an environment conducive to the development of technological solutions;
• solution maturity: identify potential, select solutions whose maturity level is not advanced and design development support flows, with a solution testing environment;
• adherence to cutting-edge technologies – the cutting-edge, which will receive and implement the innovation, may not have the necessary infrastructure. Common issues in large urban centers, such as access to the internet, can make the adoption of digital solutions in the country’s periphery unfeasible;
• interconnection and communication flow between the primary, secondary and tertiary networks, for the adoption of solutions;
• startups they must meet the challenge of scale at the government level, both from the point of view of the solution and the business model;
• build up cases of use of legal instruments for the purchase and adoption of innovation in health, and that can be a reference for public managers from different governmental spheres.

Given the size of the challenges, Brazilian government institutions have different roles to play: fostering the health innovation ecosystem with public policies, specific credit lines and legislation that create an environment conducive to innovation; adopt health solutions that improve the quality of services provided to citizens; and support the development of solutions with scientific knowledge, infrastructure and testing environment existing in ICTs.

Startups and GovTechs, on the supply side, have the challenge of directing efforts to develop solutions that consider the needs of public health, in addition to being transformative agents in supporting the adoption of these solutions by leading public agents, as part of the model of business.

Suellen Pereira de Carvalho is Director of Innovation and Design at Instituto Tellus. Public administrator by Unesp, post graduated in Project Management by FGV and Social Innovation Management by Instituto Amani – Kenya.