The innovation marketplace is overflowing with ideas, from mobile apps that offer counseling services for students experiencing mental health issues to platforms that offer mothers incentives for positive health-seeking behaviors.
There are, however, no guarantees these innovations will be adopted by their intended clients and reach to scale. Just look at the number of promising innovations or initiatives that never go beyond pilot, or mobile health apps that never gain more than a few thousand downloads. In the mobile health space, only 12 percent of 27,000 apps available in the United States can be found in 90 percent of user downloads, according to a 2015 study by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.
The reasons for these poor uptakes vary. Some innovation experts point to design, others to financing. But there are other reasons, such as lack of understanding and foresight on the part of the provider or developer.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.