Developing Precision Health Innovation and Commercialization in Alberta: Establishing Governance Systems of Innovation
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2018-09-11
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Abstract
Precision health innovation and commercialization represents an opportunity for economic diversification and improved health quality for Albertans. Precision health ecosystem development requires specific governance strategies that extend beyond the field health because of the immense interdisciplinary characteristics it presents (social determinants, business development, computational technology, etc.). New technologies being developed have revolutionized the ability to provide care that is predictive, preventative, personalized and participatory. There is interest in expanding precision health as a technological subsector in this province by capitalizing on ongoing projects underway in Alberta and by creating high demand products/processes in a rapidly growing market, all while potentially improving domestic governmental concerns. The purpose of this project was to address and catalogue important aspects of governance throughout the ecosystem. Two models of innovation system governance were used as comparators to evaluate and frame discussions around this topic. Eleven interviews were conducted with leadership from three categories of ecosystem players, academia, government and industry. These interviews were semi-structured, so a breadth of questions could be asked about precision health innovation governance strengths and challenges. Thematic analysis was used to characterize certain themes that respondents indicated were important challenges to address. Key findings from the research were: • Coordination and collaboration amongst various precision health ecosystem players is suboptimal causing many downstream effects • Navigation between supporting organizations/entrepreneurs/companies is unclear and could be improved • Evaluation and data assets are a comparative strength in Alberta • Multidisciplinary collision needs to be facilitated at a larger scale • The wide variety of ecosystem organizational support is an considered an advantage • Data management and governance is unclear when considering broader health information (i.e. social determinants) • Governance around researcher autonomy divides academia and government • Procurement challenges and overall ecosystem player incentives are not always aligned • Political influence is a concern because it may distort policy decisions, long term planning and governance. Combining principles from the models of innovation governance with the respondent data from this project’s interviews generates interesting policy challenges. Governance is required in precision health to coordinate and dedicate resources to combining the wealth of organizational support within the innovation ecosystem. Presently, the Alberta precision health ecosystem has a notable deficiency in this type coordination of projects despite in some cases, strong governance structures for specific aspects such as health data governance. Based on these preliminary findings, it is recommended that a organizational entity is mandated to develop new or modify existing policy solutions relevant to the breadth of the outlined challenges of precision health for Alberta to capitalize on the upcoming opportunities in precision health. This responsibility can be assigned to an existing entity or to a new governing structure. Inaction could result in suboptimal output and no establishment of academic and industrial innovation.
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Scott, C. (2018). Developing Precision Health Innovation and Commercialization in Alberta: Establishing Governance Systems of Innovation (Unpublished master's project). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB.