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ealthcare leaders from developing and developed countries alike are preoccupied with finding ways to improve access to medical care while simultaneously reducing costs and improving quality.

The goal, essentially, is to “get more for less” by boosting the productivity of healthcare systems to deliver quality products and services to a greater number of clients. But getting more for less cannot be achieved with the status quo; it requires innovation in the way healthcare is delivered, both on a macro level by advancing healthcare systems and on a micro level through the improvement of specific interventions and clinical care.

Tanzania, which hosted the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa in early May, is at the forefront of efforts among developing nations to implement innovative changes to healthcare. Speaking on a WEF panel, titled “Innovations In Health: Shaping a New Landscape,” the Tanzanian Minister of Health and Social Welfare Professor David Mwakyusa noted the challenges facing countries on the continent, which carries 25 percent of the global burden of disease but is home to only three percent of global healthcare workers.

“We have challenges to deliver healthcare to our people,” said Prof. Mwakyusa. “Currently, those who need healthcare the most can’t access it.” This is especially true for women and young girls in Tanzania, who tend to be among the most vulnerable groups. The Tanzanian Ministry of Health, under Prof. Mwakyusa’s leadership, is now trying to turn that situation around by implementing innovative models of healthcare delivery in close collaboration with private-sector partners, national and international nongovernmental organizations and faith-based organizations.

The country hasn’t sought to reinvent the wheel in developing these models, but rather, to apply proven solutions that already exist. Dr. Shrey Viranna, a principal at McKinsey & Company, South Africa, is an expert in this field. He and his colleagues at the management consulting firm worked in partnership with WEF to identify more than 30 examples where innovation in delivery has led to measurable improvements in productivity that can or have been taken to scale. In examining innovations along the healthcare delivery value chain, they found four clusters of innovation: integrated care, technology-enabled networks, product specialization and franchising.

Speaking on the same WEF panel as the Minister of Health for Tanzania, Dr. Viranna specifically highlighted Greenstar, PSI’s affiliate in Pakistan, and their franchising model that harnesses the talents of local entrepreneurs to lower distribution costs and improve access to high-quality family planning products and services.

“It’s about bringing the concepts of business to healthcare,” he said. “In a truly leveraged model you can give access to thousands and millions of people.”

While Tanzania has not yet adopted the franchising cluster of innovation, they’ve taken the technology cluster to exciting new levels. They’re currently working with the Roll Back Malaria Partnership to pilot a public-private partnership initiative called “SMS for Life” that uses mobile phone technology to improve access to essential medicines at the health facility level, helping to eliminate stock-outs.

Tanzania is also home to a PSI pilot program that uses similar mobile phone technologies to provide realtime information on the quantities of health products in stock at private retail shops. Combined with the electronic mapping of healthcare interventions and epidemiological data, this system helps ensure the most effective and efficient use of human and financial resources to improve health service delivery in the country. While support for traditional models of healthcare delivery is still necessary, Tanzania’s experience is one that demonstrates the value of broadly adopting innovative approaches.

Successful implementation could not only lead to a reduction in healthcare spending by governments, but the money saved could also be used to contain growing cost pressures and further improve access to, and the quality of, local healthcare.

Author: Anna Dirksen, Senior Manager Communications and Corporate Marketing, PSI