Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact 2017 Impact Brief

Agency for International Development (USAID) Global Health Bureau to encourage business-minded approaches and accelerate impact against some of the world's most important health issues. The Center invests seed capital in the most promising ideas and applies a rigorous, market-oriented approach to cut the time it takes to transform discoveries in the lab to impact on the ground. CII's primary goal is to identify cutting-edge practices in innovation, introduction, and uptake, and to leverage opportunities to rapidly develop and scale them for impact. To achieve this, the Center engages luminaries in the public, private, and academic sectors to amplify its expertise and accelerate product innovation, introduction, and uptake. CII also shares best practices with the broader global health community through a series of practical guides and actionable tools. One of the key initiatives of CII is the IDEA to IMPACT series, which provides guidance for scaling global health innovations. This series includes practical tools and case studies to help practitioners accelerate impact through better coordination and earlier planning. The IDEA to IMPACT series covers four stages of product development, including planning, choosing a business model, launching in country, and scaling up. CII has also supported several innovative projects, including the development of a compact device called DripAssist, which monitors fluid flow for a fraction of the cost of hospital pumps. This device has received approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is ready for use during another outbreak. Another project involves the development of a heat-stable, simple-to-use, dry powder oxytocin inhaler that is safe and works as well as current practice. This product has the potential to save about 20,000 more lives a year than the current formulation. In addition, CII has partnered with various organizations to strengthen community health leadership skills, accelerate scale, and combat Zika. The Center has also developed a unique way of providing protection against mosquitoes that transmit arboviral infections, including Zika, Dengue, Chikungunya, and Malaria. This involves the use of insecticide-treated sandals that cost as little as 50 cents and release highly effective, wide-area spatial repellents. Overall, CII's mission is to accelerate innovation and impact in global health by identifying cutting-edge practices, leveraging opportunities, and addressing roadblocks to rapidly develop and scale health innovations for impact. The Center's work has the potential to save millions of lives and improve health outcomes in some of the world's poorest regions.