It Takes a Village

Dan Palfrey

Co-Creator, The ASSESS Project

It takes a village to raise a child.  We have all heard that proverb. 

I would argue that it also takes a village to develop a new technology to improve health and healthcare. Healthcare technology development is a risky and complex endeavour, with significant uncertainty and substantial strategic decisions to make throughout the process.  Decisions that require thoughtful input from those with deep expertise and experience.  

We created The ASSESS Project to establish the village.  

What we have done is assembled an online global community of those with expertise and experience in assessing the value of new technologies, how they can integrate into complex care pathways, and the evidence required for patients to gain access to them and have them utilized by healthcare professionals.  And we have supported the community with some of the leading thought leaders and methodologists in the world serving as Advisors to the project.   

In doing so, we have shifted the paradigm of obtaining opinions from these health technology assessment professionals from the end of the product development cycle, and for reimbursement decision-making purposes, to much earlier in the process, when there is opportunity to focus resources on high value technology, and more explicitly design value for end users and payers into product and evidence development. 

We set out to create a ‘User Interface Moment”, as Peter Diamandis would say.  This is the moment when the previously inaccessible becomes accessible, enabled by technology.  Think of the first internet browser, Mosaic, applied to the emerging Internet, that created the ability to easily access information stored on computers.  

The ASSESS Platform, our village interface, creates access to a global community of engaged talent and expertise, where the right skill set, experience, target market and therapeutic area knowledge is matched to the questions posed to the village.  

People ask me “What type of guidance does this village provide to support health technology innovation?”  And I increasingly answer “Whatever is needed.”  Admittedly, we started with an idea to produce a standard report type – assessing commercial potential and evidence requirements to bring a technology to market – but have learned that the potential of the village is much greater. 

People ask me “What does an assessment look like?”  And I increasingly answer “It looks like what is required.”  And what I mean is what is required in terms of the specific needs of innovators, at each stage of technology development.

Let me explain.  

We view the collective intelligence of the village as an asset to the health technology development and investment community, to nurture demonstrably high value products to market and to transform how care is delivered.  This asset is accessible via The ASSESS Platform, to support with point-in-time early stage value assessment, and to support over time with continuous feedback from the village.  In the early days of the Internet when browsers made data on servers accessible, the use cases for websites were limitless. We feel the same about the use cases for the engagement of the expertise we have assembled and made accessible to the health technology innovation ecosystem.

Whether it is a university technology transfer office in need of due diligence on a disclosed invention, or an early-stage start-up needing to understand priority clinical applications for their technology, or a market-ready company needing to define the evidence generation plan for technology to move from trial to adoption, the village has been assembled to raise the child. 

We invite you to connect with The ASSESS Project, and to be part of an ecosystem that shares your ambition, fuels your inspiration, and amplifies your impact.  Together, we can embrace a future where tailored support, collaboration, and shared knowledge create a powerful force for positive change in the life sciences industry. Together, we can make a difference, reshape healthcare, and leave a lasting legacy that benefits all.