Whether during a routine doctor’s appointment, an emergency room trip or while dealing with unexpected diagnoses, too many Americans are facing barriers to quality healthcare, frustrating hospital experiences and unaffordable treatment options. Compassionate care and miraculous recoveries that benefit from streamlined access are possible, but the reality is that our healthcare system still falls short for far too many. The challenges are only worsening — and the need for change is undeniable.
We can and should look to major health systems for leadership to address challenges but also must turn to our communities to find solutions. The nation’s top health institutions do not have a monopoly on innovation; many of the best ideas in healthcare have emerged from nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups and small towns where a commitment to delivering quality care despite barriers inspires bold, innovative solutions.
That’s the idea behind the Kraft Center for Community Health at Mass General Brigham. We seek to catalyze effective solutions to make measurable impacts on the most difficult, real-world community health issues. We pilot those solutions to understand what works and then help to scale the best innovation solutions nationwide.
And it’s the impetus behind the inaugural Kraft Prize for Excellence and Innovation in Community Health, a prize that will help identify and foster this type of transformative work in action at a time when we need it more than ever.
Research shows that it takes an average of 17 years for evidence to change practice when it comes to healthcare in the community. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted this type of troubling reality: Despite strong evidence supporting certain treatment options, many failed to reach the public who needed intervention most. Paxlovid, for example, was only prescribed in about 13% of eligible cases, and monoclonal antibodies, which showed effectiveness against the original virus, were similarly underutilized. How could life-saving treatments struggle to gain traction amid relentless public awareness campaigns? This type of challenge demands innovative solutions.
To close this gap, we must turbocharge the process of turning evidence into practice. That’s where the private sector plays a critical role. Concerns for the core issues facing the nation’s healthcare systems, such as access and affordability, are mounting. Addressing them requires collaboration between community-based organizations, healthcare systems and the private sector coming together to bring new perspectives and resources that will drive meaningful solutions to real-life problems.
Breakthrough innovations are already advancing healthcare, from cutting-edge cancer detection technologies to wearable and remote monitoring tools that track and manage heart disease in real time. Advances in non-opioid pain management are providing safer alternatives, while digital navigators are bridging critical gaps by connecting people to essential resources that address social risk factors like stable housing and nutritious food. These advancements aren’t just promising — they have the power to transform healthcare as we know it. The challenge now is scaling them to reach those who need them most. We urge incubators, entrepreneurs and innovators to turn their collective attention to community health, leveraging their expertise to drive solutions that make high-quality care more accessible, equitable and effective for all.
With the Kraft Prize, we are seeking innovative organizations, programs or technologies that address cardiometabolic disease, substance use disorder, cancer and maternal health. Included in this focus are efforts that address social factors — such as housing stability, food insecurity and economic mobility — that impact health outcomes. Our goal is to find, celebrate, foster and support the most impactful work being done — regardless of where it’s being conducted — and invest in how those successes can be shared on a nationwide platform. Applications for this year’s prize are open through April 4 and organizations across the U.S. are eligible to participate.
The status quo is no longer working. This is our call to better our country’s health.
