Health care solutions with high social value — those with the potential to reduce costs, improve outcomes, and increase access for underserved populations — can play a vital role in improving our entire health care system. Accordingly, interest in innovations that enable more efficient and cost-effective health care has grown.

Despite increased efforts to foster innovation, new models of care face the challenge of bridging the gap from testing and small-scale use to mass adoption. Given the pace of innovation in health care and the significant funds that flow from investors into the sector each year, it is critically important to understand the challenges and opportunities for emerging high-value medical devices, services, and technologies.

This supplement to the Stanford Social Innovation Review, sponsored by CHCF, advances the dialogue on health care innovation by examining these questions:

• What forces impede the success of health care innovations that are targeted to underserved populations?
• Where are the market opportunities for high-value, low-cost health care solutions? 
• How can foundations, social venture funds, and other investors support novel clinical or business models?

The supplement explores the obstacles faced by health care innovators, identifies test markets favorable to innovation, and discusses the multiple roles that socially minded supporters can play. Valuable insights are offered by the contributors:

• Stefanos Zenios and Lyn Denend at the Stanford Graduate School of Business reveal why some innovations are undervalued by traditional investors. 
• Lisa Suennen, a co-founder and managing member of Psilos Group, reminds us that innovation is only part of the answer — the hard-nosed approach of an experienced entrepreneur is also needed to succeed.
• William Rosenzweig, a managing director of Physic Ventures, applauds impact investors and encourages greater collaboration through innovative financing and limited partnership structures.
• Chaim Indig, founder and CEO of Phreesia, shares lessons he learned from bringing a new health technology company to market.
• Arnold Milstein, MD, director of Stanford University's Clinical Excellence Research Center, underscores the importance of social investment in new service and care delivery models.  
• Carleen Hawn, co-founder and CEO of Healthspottr, interviews Todd Park, chief technology officer of the US Department of Health and Human Services, to reveal how government is leveraging innovation to transform how it operates.
• Jaspal S. Sandhu, a partner at the Gobee Group, offers his perspective on reverse innovation in mobile health care.
• John Goldstein, co-founder of Imprint Capital Advisors, and Margaret Laws, director of the Innovations for the Underserved program at CHCF, describe some of the ways that foundations are supporting new approaches to health care.

In an effort to make these insights available to everyone interested in high-quality, lower-cost care, CHCF sponsored access to the supplement, free of charge, through the Stanford Social Innovation Review External Link below.