Health Transformer University

Why an entrepreneurial mastery program and lifelong learning community for ambitious founders and funders is essential to tackling the biggest health challenges of our time.

For more than 12 years we’ve worked to organize a global army of Health Transformers and partners — the superhero founders and mission-aligned funders passionate about reinventing the future of health — in our quest to solve what many skeptics say is an impossible dream: to improve the health and wellbeing of all people everywhere.

While we are more optimistic than ever about the potential to achieve global health moonshots, and we are proud of our contributions in helping inspire a generation of Health Transformers to solve big health challenges, we have a lot more work to do to drive transformative outcomes.

On the plus side, we have built the world’s first and only ecosystem dedicated to achieving health moonshots and pioneered a collaborative learning model that multiplies the collective power of those building health innovation with the magic accelerant of network effects. We’re learning in real-time from our 1,000+ Health Transformers and the nearly 500 health moonshot companies across 29 countries that are in our portfolio community.

Despite these accomplishments and even with billions of dollars flooding into health technology startups, we are seeing a widening valley of death between the extraordinary health innovation at the early R&D stages and what actually makes it to the essential commercialization phase where great innovation should become accessible and improve health outcomes. Too much transformative health innovation is stunted by legacy business models, outdated regulatory frameworks, and the opaque complexities of the healthcare industry.

These hard realities have given us the opportunity to reflect, assess, and recalibrate our plans for the future. We have dissected and audited every aspect of our platform to figure out what’s working and where we can improve so that we can make exponential leaps forward. The result is the establishment of a new paradigm, unmatched in the market, in community-driven support and education for healthcare innovation and the people driving it: Health Transformer University.

The transformative power of a university framework

Universities have always played a critical role in educating the next generation of leaders and advancing knowledge through research and scholarship. They are where we as humans go to transform and maximize our potential.

They serve as engines of economic growth and innovation, helping to create jobs and develop innovation that benefit society as a whole. Many of the world’s most significant innovations in science, biology, and medicine start in universities because they are such powerful catalysts of innovation.

A purpose-built university dedicated to achieving health moonshots

For the past year, we have been busy reimagining and building Health Transformer University, expanding on everything we have learned over the past decade with StartUp Health Academy.

Health Transformer University is for ambitious founders and funders who are working together to solve the biggest health challenges of our time. We are building a global institution and place to collaborate — both virtually and IRL — for people anywhere in the world dedicated to achieving health moonshots. Our university is designed for entrepreneurs and innovators to provide the tools, structures, and networks they need to speed up innovation cycles and build and scale transformative solutions through every stage of growth. Its focus is not only on building health moonshot companies but on the founders whose mission it is to achieve their transformative endgame.

While there are so many extraordinary academic medical schools and institutions around the world advancing science, technology, and biology for the benefit of humanity, there has not been a global university that exists to help educate the world’s Health Transformers on how to achieve a health moonshot and navigate the process of building, commercializing, and scaling a health moonshot company.

A ‘health moonshot residency’ for Health Transformers

The first residency program for doctors in the United States was established at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1889. At the time, medical education was not standardized, and many newly graduated physicians lacked the necessary clinical experience to practice medicine effectively.

Just as the first residency program was created to provide clinicians with a structured and supervised training program to prepare them to improve their practice of medicine, we have created a Health Moonshot Fellowship program for Health Transformers to guide them — and a community of like-minded, equally ambitious founders — as they build their health moonshot company. The program is designed to bridge the gap between R&D and the grueling journey of commercializing and scaling health innovation.

To make Health Transformer University accessible to as many entrepreneurs and innovators as possible, we are partnering with passionate families, foundations, and industry organizations — who we call Health Moonshot Champions — to help fund Fellowships in Health Transformer University. This makes it possible for entrepreneurs driving innovation to get access to Health Transformer University’s community-driven coaching and curriculum and StartUp Health’s thought leadership engine and collaboration networks to help them scale.

We hope the success of Health Transformer University will quickly spread, so that our frameworks and programming become a core curriculum that can be easily added to complement the best university training, medical schools, and medical residency programs around the world. Most importantly, we intend to make it available to the world’s best Health Transformers, all the entrepreneurs and innovators already working to build health moonshot companies.

Health Transformer University’s operating framework

Health Transformer University isn’t a traditional university. There’s no ivy-covered library or freshmen quad (not this year, at least). It is a purpose-built next-generation university where Health Transformers always have access to the best practical learning tools, peer support, and networks to succeed.

First and foremost, transforming health requires a community of people who gather around common principles and mindsets. This is true for great universities — which are more than the sum of their buildings — and it’s true for us. Health Transformer University isn’t defined by term sheets or cap tables, but by the generations of people who will gather to learn and innovate. That means building networks for faculty, alumni, and partners so that we can advance our family of health moonshots. Universities empower communities of people to learn, which in turn enable essential shifts in broader society.

Transforming health also requires focus. Health Transformer University is organized around specific health moonshot themes, not unlike a college major. The goal is to both prepare and organize a global army of Health Transformers on how to tackle complex health challenges through interdisciplinary and innovative approaches. For instance, we’ve recently launched a Type 1 Diabetes Moonshot in order to speed up innovation in this important area. In university parlance, the first step was to choose a dean (our Chief Impact Officer), appoint faculty (our Impact Board), and then begin identifying and selecting students (our Health Transformers who are awarded T1D Moonshot Fellowships).

Transforming health requires long-term commitment and a longitudinal focus. That’s why the Health Moonshot Fellowship is a three-year program, operating on a quarterly rhythm. All universities recognize that gaining mastery in a subject takes time. Learning to grow and scale a health innovation company in today’s complex market is no exception.

Health Transformer University will leverage the passion of a network of like-minded funders. Like the families that have endowed the great universities of our time, “Health Moonshot Champions” invest their financial muscle — and their good name — behind global health initiatives that will change the world. The more partners who support a health moonshot, the more Health Transformers we can grant Health Moonshot Fellowships.

Every great university is driven by a solid curriculum. Ours emphasizes hands-on learning via business building and a collaborative innovation model that unites industry and community partners to ensure Health Transformers are equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to drive impact.

To transform health we have to track our progress and adjust when necessary. Universities use exams and grades to accomplish this. At Health Transformer University we leverage StartUp Health’s system of Health Moonshot Scorecards to make sure that those going through our program are making progress, driving impact to benefit a health moonshot, and continually leveling up, no matter what stage their companies are at when they start.

Health Transformer University is guided by core principles — a school charter rooted in a codified set of Health Transformer Mindsets. These mindsets like long-term commitment, collaboration, and communication were inspired by the original moon landing in the 1960s, an apt metaphor for breaking down silos to achieve the impossible.

With a focus on developing leaders in the health sector, Health Transformer University is cultivating a global culture of innovation and entrepreneurship that will inspire generations of leaders, builders, and innovators to think big and tackle the toughest health problems facing our world today.

In a world full of limited-scope, short-form, quick-hit business advice, we’re building Health Transformer University with long-term transformation in mind. On the business side, that means being stage agnostic, unbound by time, and connected globally. It also means getting personal and treating Health Transformers as human beings. We firmly believe in the power of entrepreneurs and their ability to effect change. In fact, we are betting on their ability to do so. We know that if we can give them a place to learn and grow, supported by a community unlike any other, they will transform health for everyone while thriving both personally and professionally. Health Transformer University is our framework for making this vision a reality.

This is no small feat which is why we have a multi-decade masterplan to expand and scale Health Transformer University, and why we are calling on all those who believe health moonshots are possible to join our mission. Our success depends on more like-minded champions to fund health moonshots, passionate Health Transformers to build health moonshot solutions, and like-minded network partners, faculty, and team members to support the mission.

It’s time to get to work. Together, we will show that our dream of improving health for all is possible.

by Unity Stoakes, President & Co-founder of StartUp Health.

Founders: Don’t make the journey alone. Learn how Health Transformer University fuels your health moonshot.

Funders: Learn how you can become a Health Moonshot Champion and invest in Health Transformers.

Passionate about breaking down health barriers? If you’re an entrepreneur or investor, contact us to learn how you can join our Health Equity Moonshot.

Follow us on social media for daily updates on Health Transformers: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Health Transformer University was originally published in StartUp Health on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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