Stop focusing on innovation, please.

We often celebrate breakthroughs in medicine and technology, but progress in healthcare isn’t just about innovation, it’s about collaboration. I’ve spent years working at the intersection of healthcare policy, industry, and advocacy, and one thing is clear: no single player can solve the biggest challenges alone.

During my first years as a digital health program director in Asia, I was overwhelmed by the number of new technologies coming out every now and then. And still, many of the product owners were struggling to make things work. They were always missing a piece. And that piece was rarely about how innovative their solution was. It was usually about how to demonstrate its value to others. You may have the most breakthrough healthcare solution, but you will still need it to be accepted by regulators and payers in each of your target countries, clinicians who have to recommend it or prescribe it, and patients who have to use it. Whether it’s enhancing disease management through digital health, improving cancer surveillance, or strengthening health systems, success relies on coordinated action across governments, NGOs, industry, academia, patients, and local communities.

So, why doesn’t everyone in the healthcare industry dedicate a fixed amount of time to collaboration? Because not everyone can do it. Competing priorities, regulatory complexities, and funding constraints can slow progress. And leaders find themselves focusing on their micro objectives - generating X revenue by the end of the year, entering X new markets, reducing costs by X%, you name it - rather than on the big picture. If every leader in the healthcare industry could be involved in just one collaborative initiative per year, they would see how powerful, eye-opening, and revenue-generating it is in the long run.

I totally get it: we don’t have time for everything. That’s why building the right partnerships, those that align incentives and drive action, is at the core of my work. One of the most rewarding parts of what I do is bringing diverse stakeholders to the table and turning shared goals into tangible outcomes. I’ve seen firsthand how strategic partnerships can unlock funding, accelerate policy change, and improve access to care. As we push toward ambitious global health targets, we need more than just good intentions, we need structures that make collaboration effective.