AHA Solvathon 2019 Replaybook

RE-PLAYBOOK

FRAME DESIGN ITERATE

What’s in this book?

At the American Hospital Association, we envision a society
of healthy communities where all individuals can reach their
highest potential for health. As leaders in advancing health, we’re
committed to making this vision a reality.

The AHA Center for Health Innovation was delighted to welcome
almost 200 attendees to the first ever Solvathon. The aim was to
collectively frame huge health care challenges and design potential
solution concepts that can challenge thinking and drive change.
This re-playbook is meant to illustrate how to use the tools that
were utilized during Solvathon to think through problems and share
the key insights from health care leaders.

Numbers at a glance

Almost 24 6

200 Innovation Exercises
Teams
Health Care
Leaders

Why we did the Solvathon

New design skills Igniting relationships

The tools that we used were essentially There is no better networking
simple visual structures that helped us opportunity than diving into a shared
hold complex conversations. challenge with other people.

Inspire. Be inspired. Learn about

We shared our most exciting innovations We sincerely want to help advance
that health care leaders were working on. health in America, and you are one
of the many people who are doing
exactly that!

More than 1 0

1800 Drone Boring
speakers
Statty notes

How to use this book

This book contains two key parts: the activities we completed at the
Solvathon and the data insights from these activities. Our partners at
Do Tank created a visual “design canvas” broken into six exercises to
guide attendees’ conversations while they developed their solutions
to a health care problem. You can see all six sections of the illustrated
canvas on the following pages.

After each activity section, data insights are featured. These insights
were tabulated from the raw information on health care leaders’ design
canvases. Throughout the book, we call out the top responses to
each activity. As you consider how to innovate health care to improve
patients’ lives, refer to this book to see what almost 200 health care
leaders think is important to keep in mind.

What we did

8:30 AM 1 3
START Frame the How will it
challenge work

Forming 2
your team The BIG
Idea

4 6
The pitch. Leadership
The plan. Twist
The ask.

12:30 PM 5 5:00 PM
LUNCH Marketplace END
validation

Starting with the
customer in mind

Individuals with limited access to care

People who have gaps in access because of various
social determinants of health or proximity to health
care. These individuals could be dealing with food
deserts, lack of transportation, violence or lack of
economic opportunity. They can live anywhere: rural,
urban or suburban settings.

Individuals who are providing care to others

People who are informally caring for someone
else: their children, spouses or partners, or parents
and other relatives. These individuals might be
caring for both their children and parents and in
those situations are sometimes referred to as the
“sandwich generation.” Regardless of who they care
for, they are navigating the health care system on
someone else’s behalf.

Individuals who are older adults

People who are 65 years and older. These individuals
have higher rates of chronic conditions which may
be compounded by complex social and economic
challenges. This can lead to anxiety about both
financial and personal well-being. They will soon
utilize or are already utilizing Medicare.

Individuals with chronic conditions

People living with one or more chronic health
conditions for one or more years that require ongoing
medical attention and can limit activities of daily living.
Chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and
diabetes are the leading causes of death and disability
while also are the leading drivers of health care costs.
These individuals could be dealing with a variety of
conditions that may be caused by risk factors from
lifestyle choices or social determinants of health.

It is difficult to schedule care. I’m on the I am frustrated and confused when I need
phone or website forever trying to do so. care from more than one provider. It’s like
you guys don’t talk to each other. How can
Some of the care I need is not available in you make it easier?
my community or near my house.
Why don’t my providers within my group
I need to see the doctor but the first know what medications I’m taking. It’s in my
availability is in 8 weeks. electronic medical record. Why do you keep
asking the same questions?
I need to make appointments with 5
different doctors and I don’t understand Who will be following up with me? Am I
how to make it all work in my schedule. supposed to call or are you going to call me?

Last time I went to see my doctor, I waited When I get out of the hospital what should I
for 2 hours to be seen for 5 minutes. do? I have all these instructions and follow-up.

Why can’t you tell me how much this There is no way I can get to follow-
procedure will cost me? Please just tell me up appointments because of work (or
what it’s going to cost so that I can see if I transportation or child care issues).
can afford it in my budget.
Can you help me understand my bill? I don’t
The environment is not really inviting. How understand what it means, what was covered
can you make this feel more like home for by my insurance and how much I owe.
me? For my family?

My family is getting lost walking around
this place.

Forming 15 min
your team max!

STEP 1 Intro

Teams took a few minutes to go around the table and
introduce themselves.

STEP 2 Who is playing 3 critical roles
what role?
The Playbook The Wall
Every person on the team was Manager Manager
considered a subject matter expert,
designer and innovator. However, there The Time
were a few key jobs to be done – teams Manager
selected a person for each “facilitation
job”. Everyone wrote their names on
the wall.

STEP 3 Orient yourself to
the space

Teams took a moment to settle into their workstations
and make it their own. They thought of themselves as
a new startup with a new office – throughout the day,
teams could color the walls and decorate.

STEP 4 Move to the “Frame the
Challenge” exercise

The designing began! Teams advanced to the next
exercise and started working (and having fun)!

24 7 teams focused on people with
limited access to care
Innovation
Teams 5 teams focused on
older adults

6 teams focused on caregivers
6 teams focused on people

with chronic conditions

1 FRAME THE
CHALLENGE

3 Assess the current context and marketplace
dynamics around your customer and the
challenges they face. What trends do you
see in the broader health care space?
How are regulations changing? What
uncertainties are most organizations
grappling with? Select your top, most
salient context factor in each section.

You should have
filled this by now.

2

Discuss the challenges that
this person faces. What
keeps them awake at night?
What risks do they observe?
What frustrations sour their
health care experience?
What prevents them from
achieving their goals?

The purpose: Before building solutions, it is important
to focus on the right questions and identify the
elements of the customer experience and external
context that really matter. What teams identified in this
exercise underpinned the solution that they developed
throughout the day.

Uncertainties 4

Identify an important
customer pain or context
factor that your team
would like to explore.
Turn it into a “How might
we….” question that invites
innovation and creativity.

1

Add a few more biographical details
to your persona – don’t spend a
lot of time on this, but invent some
descriptors (name, where they live,
a few other details) that will help the
customer come into clearer focus.

INSIGHTS FRAME THE CHALLENGE

MOST IMPORTANT RULES AND REGULATIONS
THAT IMPACT HEALTH CARE
+ Reimbursement change and uncertainties
+ Price transparency
+ Telehealth reimbursement

HEALTH CARE TRENDS THAT INFLUENCE CARE
+ Fragmented, understaffed system
+ Cost and deductibles
+ Trend toward value-based care

COMMON CUSTOMER PAINS AND PROBLEMS
+ Isolation
+ Travel time/taking time for health
+ Cost/insurance coverage
+ Access to care and information

INSIGHTS FRAME THE CHALLENGE

IMPORTANT UNKNOWNS IN
THE HEALTH CARE SPACE
+ Legislative/political instability
+ Reimbursement

TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENTS THAT MATTER

Telehealth Wearables/ EMR portals AI
remote monitoring

Percentage of innovation teams that reported this
as a technology advancement that matters

HOW HEALTH CARE EXPERTS
WANT TO HELP

Almost all of the “How Might We” questions
showed that health care experts want to
help patients be independent, save time
and money, and have easy, understandable
and coordinated access to a complicated
medical system.

2 THE BIG IDEA

1

Before you start inventing
new solutions, commit to a
feature that must be part of
whatever you create. Also,
identify something that will
not be part of it. This will
help you determine where
to provide value and enable
difficult design choices.

2

We recommend taking about 5 minutes
of solo, reflective, quiet time for each
member of the team to write down a
few solution ideas. Don’t edit yourselves
too much yet; anything is possible and
no idea is crazy at this point.

The purpose: Teams built a wide range of potential new
products, services, processes…solutions that answered
their “how might we” question. From an entrepreneurial
perspective, they filled their pipeline of innovative ideas to
design, test, iterate and perhaps scale. Once they had a solid
gallery of options, they agreed on what their best big idea
was to take into the next exercise.

3

Share your top ideas with your
team, filling up your marquee
of potential solutions – one
idea per sticky note.

4

As a group, select the one
idea (or perhaps a new
one will emerge that fuses
features from multiple
possibilities in your gallery)
that you will want to expand
upon and ultimately pitch.

INSIGHTS THE BIG IDEA

FEATURES OF A SUCCESSFUL
HEALTH CARE INNOVATION

Include human
Affordable Simple/usable interaction

Percentage of innovation teams that
reported this as a feature an innovation
must have.

INSIGHTS THE BIG IDEA

SOME BIG IDEAS

Health care leaders generated more than 250 solutions
to patient problems during this activity. Below are six
solutions that teams selected as their “Big Idea.”

Empowering nurse technology Health care supplies delivered
navigators to bring virtual care regularly with a subscription

to patient homes box service

AOpnplitnheaet dcuarceastifoonr stehreiecsaarebgoiuvet r Web-based decision pathway
bybaenintigciapactainreggniveeerds for transgender individuals to

navigate transition

PlaOtfnolirnme ethdautcgaatimonifiseesriceosmapbloeutitng POlantfloinremefdourcpaatitoiennstsertioesmaabnoaugte
bheianlgthaccaareretgaisvkesr their chbroeninicgcaocnadrietigoinvebrased on

their care plan

OTHER IDEAS FROM THE GALLERY

Below are just six solutions that are intriguing and have
potential but were not chosen as their “Big Idea.”

Online education series about Traveling clinic for diabetes care
being a caregiver and other routine care brought

Transportation service for those directly to your home
who need to get to appointments
In-home safety system that alerts
Customer loyalty rewards program someone if the occupant has
to incentivize patient compliance fallen or is hurt

Create a care robot using
Alexa, Echos, modified
Roomba, or other tech

3 HOW WILL
IT WORK

1 This is your business model. Within the structure of the roller
coaster, select the key elements that define how your solution
works…the key elements of the business model. Think about:

• Required infrastructure & resources such as personnel,

intellectual property, capital, external partners, etc.

• Channels – How will you advertise this, encourage adoption

and ultimately reach your customer?

• Revenue model – How will you fund it and capture value for

your organization?

The purpose: There were two main objectives in this section:
highlight how the customer’s experience and life is improved
and select the key elements of how the idea actually works.
An exciting solution will have a compelling value proposition
and a clear description of the business model (how the big
idea actually creates, delivers and captures value).

2 This is your value proposition. The passengers look
pretty happy! Highlight 4 key ways their experience is
improved. Think about their current state (remember
your empathetic conversation around pains at the
beginning of the day) and where they would be if
your idea is implemented. The difference between the
two represents the value that is created and the key
elements of your value proposition.

INSIGHTS HOW WILL IT WORK

HOW TO REACH PATIENTS
+ Digital marketing (website, social media, etc.)
+ TV, radio, newspaper advertising
+ Health systems and providers
+ Insurance payers

COMMON REVENUE MODELS FOR
HEALTH CARE INNOVATIONS
+ Grants from foundations or the government
+ Subscription fees
+ Health insurance or employers
+ Advertising and supplier payments



INSIGHTS HOW WILL IT WORK

HOW INNOVATIONS WILL CHANGE PATIENTS’ LIVES
+ Connection to resources without leaving home
+ Care navigation that is guided by an expert or AI

NECESSARY RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE FOR
INNOVATIONS TO SUCCEED

Staff Technology partner Providers and hospital
system partners

Percentage of innovation teams that reported this
as a required resource or infrastructure component.



4 THE PITCH.
THE PLAN. THE ASK.

1

Who would you pitch this to? Select an
audience and be specific – health system,
technology company, payer, etc.

2

Highlight the critical assumptions that, if
you are wrong about them, can make this
whole thing fail. Assumptions can relate to
the market, your customer’s priorities or
your business model.

3

How would you test your
assumptions? What are
the critical next steps for
experimenting, prototyping
and moving to action?

The purpose: Teams prepared to tell a succinct version of their
story that included highlights from all the work they did. They
determined the key assumptions that they wanted to test, how
they would plan a pilot and validate the idea and what they
would require for investment to get started. They also tried to
make a colorful and exciting billboard that creatively conveyed
the big idea.

4

What is “The Ask” to make this
happen? The money, resources,
key partners, time, etc.

5

Have fun with this one and use the
color markers. Create a cool billboard
that sells the big idea. Include visuals
and a headline that summarizes it
and ties it together.

INSIGHTS THE PITCH.
THE PLAN. THE ASK.

ASSUMPTIONS TEAMS ACKNOWLEDGED THEY MADE
+ Patients want more tech to connect with health

care system and will use these products

+ Payers will pay for health tech
+ Health systems can integrate EMR with health tech

IMPORTANT ASSUMPTIONS TEAMS DID NOT
POINT OUT
+ Peer-to-peer relationships and incentive systems

will improve health outcomes

+ Compiling information and access to medical
records and appointments will make the health
care system more accessible for patients

+ Patients inputting information will not be
influenced by reporting bias

+ Targeted patients know how to use technology
for health care

INSIGHTS THE PITCH.
THE PLAN. THE ASK.

WHAT HEALTH CARE LEADERS NEED TO MAKE THEIR
INNOVATIONS A REALITY
+ Money
+ Partnerships with technology companies
+ Partnerships with a pilot group of patients or a

health system

SOME BIG IDEA COMMON FACTORS
+ Web or tech-accessible products that gather a lot of

information in one place to make navigating a complex
system more consumable
+ System that collects personal information to provide
resources and connections based on anticipated needs
+ Individual navigators or peer supporters to guide
patients through the health care system
+ Care navigation that is guided by an expert or AI



5 MARKETPLACE
VALIDATION

The purpose: This activity helped teams refine their pitch and
iterate the story – they learned what resonated, what could be
trimmed and what details to add. This was not a final pitch; it
was about listening and learning. All team members either stayed
at the station to test their ideas with an audience or acted as an
audience member for another team and gave feedback and took
inspiration. The activity ended by teams individually compiling
notes to prepare each person to give a 3-minute pitch.

1 10 min

• As a team, select the key talking points
and rehearse the flow of a 3-minute pitch
for investment.

• Select two members of your team to
“run the booth” in step 2. In step 2, one
person will give the 3-minute pitch to
an audience and the second person will
facilitate a feedback conversation.

15 min 2

• The team members who are not staying at
the work station should split up and go to
a different booth that worked on the same
persona. Try to spread out - we don’t need
to be precise with numbers but are aiming
for a small group at each station.

• At each work station, the following will
happen: a 3-minute pitch will be delivered
followed by a conversation that uncovers
what the audience liked, didn’t like, thought
was missing and found confusing. Ideas for
improvement should be solicited. This is
more about gathering data than continuing
to “sell.”

• Audience members should actively listen,
give candid feedback and find good ideas
that can be “borrowed.”

YOUR STORYTELLING SCRIPT & NOTES

• Everyone returns to their original team. 3

• Teams should discuss feedback they heard
and any ideas from other groups that can
be modified and used.

• Make changes to your pitch and align on how
you would tell the story. Don’t take this part
lightly; it is a golden opportunity to make
something good even better.

• Every person on the team should take notes on
the supplied “pitch sheet” in order to make a

pitch, without your work station as a visual aid,

in the next part of the program.

25 min

6 LEADERSHIP
TWIST

The purpose: Innovation teams were split into new Leadership
teams and encouraged to have a critical mindset of a key
decisionmaker in their organization. This group of leaders was
tasked with assessing the quality of each big idea and selecting
one to pursue. Each member had the opportunity to pitch their
improved idea to the group of leaders in the hopes of receiving
the funding and support they needed. Each team provided
feedback on why an idea was chosen and how to improve it.

Top Innovations

+ MapElderCare.com tied as the top solution developed to help
individuals providing care to others. It is a web-based application
that allows for quick and easy connections between caregivers
and home health. It was imagined with the goal of creating
consolidated navigation resources for the continuum of care for
elder parents.

+ Your Care Butler tied as the top solution developed to help
individuals providing care to others. It is an app for two types of
users: caregivers and patients. Caregivers are connected in real
time so they can schedule appointments, access telemedicine
services and find needed resources and connections. Patients
have an AI-triggered check-in to assess the status of social
connections and provides volunteer virtual visits, community
activities and local resources.

+ MyHealthFriend.org was the winning solution for individuals
with limited access to care. It is a mobile platform that allows
patients to find a health friend to improve their health outcomes.
The application will identify a health plan, connect the patient
with community members willing to help and create a supportive
network that is relationship-based, not transactional.

+ Operation Grandparent was the winning idea for individuals
who are older adults. It is an app that builds a community in
isolation by connecting older adults to a social network and
necessary resources. Patients are matched with resources and
connections based on their wants and needs.

+ Who Are Your PEEPs? (People Empowering Each other
Positively) was the winning solution for individuals with chronic
conditions. It is a community platform application that matches
peers to help each other manage their chronic conditions and
improve health outcomes. The platform will increase treatment
adherence by providing an accountability partner, personalized
community and resources, and enhancing social connection.

AHA CENTER FOR
HEALTH INNOVATION

The AHA Center for Health Innovation was created to
help members drive high-impact innovation and
transformation with market intelligence, key insights,
targeted education, actionable data and tools that
address their unique context on their journey to
advance health and continue to redefine the “H.”

Focus areas include Innovation Capacity, Affordability
& Value, Emerging Issues & Insights, Population Health,
Performance Improvement, and New Payment &
Delivery Models.

INNOVATION CAPACITY
AHA Next Generation Leader Fellowship: A year-long
program launching in 2020 to develop transformative
leaders, uniquely equipped and collectively supported
to lead health care organizations in the next decade
and beyond

AHA Innovation Challenge: An annual opportunity to
bring together creative thinkers, catalyze ideas and
explore new ways to achieve quality care and financing
for populations with complex health needs

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT
AHA Team Training: Courses, customized coaching and
consulting, webinars, and a national conference to
improve communication and teamwork across the health
care continuum through TeamSTEPPS and other
methodologies

AFFORDABILITY & VALUE
The Value Initiative: Strategies and tools that help make
health care more affordable for patients and communities

EMERGING ISSUES & TRENDS
Market Insights: Reports, tools and resources on topics
that are driving where health care is headed next

Market Scan: A compilation of updates and intelligence
on the latest moves in health care

Cybersecurity and Risk Advisory Services: Expert
resources to protect vital information by assessing risk,
investigating vulnerabilities, engineering and IT security
environment and staying on top of the latest cyber
threat updates

POPULATION HEALTH
AHA’s Framework for Population health supports the
development and advancement of competencies for
accountable, equitable care

NEW PAYMENT & DELIVERY MODELS
Age Friendly Health Systems offer a new model with a
clear action plan to address the unique health care needs
of older adults

Almost working for more than

200 24INHealth Care 1,200
Leaders
Innovation
Teams

combined hours

...THINK THAT health care’s …THINK THAT a solution to
biggest problem is improving this problem must be:
patients’ access to care by
simplifying the complex + Affordable for the patient
health care system + Easy to understand
+ Personalized for the

patient’s needs

…THINK THAT the following are …THINK THAT we need to
major assets for solving patient verify that:
problems:
+ Patients want to use
+ Supportive people, including technology to manage
peers, providers and care their health
navigators
+ Payers will pay for health
+ Technology like EMR portals technology
and telehealth platforms
combined with AI + Peer relationships and
incentive systems will
+ Partnerships with health improve health outcomes
systems, community
organizations and
technology companies

THANKS!

This book contains the thoughts, concerns and
ideas of the AHA Solvathon attendees. If you
would like to use the visual tools for your own
event or meeting, please contact Chris Hund at
[email protected].
The AHA Center for Health Innovation team

Sponsored by:





www.aha.org