"Adaptation and Diffusion of Innovations during the COVID-19 Pandemic"

June 24, 2020 Learning and Action Network Biweekly Zoom Series Recording

The panel was moderated by Dr. Diana Silimperi. Speakers included:

Karabi Acharya, Global Ideas for U.S. Solutions, RWJF
Matt Harris, Imperial College London
Nowai Gray, Last Mile Health
Shelley Saxena, Sevamob
Jordan Lerner, Dimagi


The first few questions focused on organizational response to adaptation and diffusion of innovations during the pandemic (7:23)

To Mr. Matt Harris, how has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the conceptual thinking of the adaptation of innovation of your favorite frugal innovation at the Imperial College, and more broadly in the UK? (7:39)

To Ms. Karabi Acharya, what do you think has not changed during the pandemic? Moving forward, how do you think the pandemic may have changed the conversation of innovation in regards to adaptation of innovation at RWJF? (14:05)

The panel then shifted to hear the experiences of innovators, asking them to each describe their innovation and the adaptations they’ve made to these innovations as a result of the pandemic. (19:48)

To Ms. Nowai Gray, what was Last Mile Health’s most significant lesson learned in terms of adapting innovation to the pandemic? (27:54)

How have you introduced or expanded telehealth and/or digital programming to new settings in the context of the pandemic? (30:50)

For all the innovators, how has the pandemic challenged the scale up of innovation, and what were your responses to those challenges? (35:36)

To Mr. Harris, how might we think about embedding concepts of frugal innovation so that it becomes part of the landscape going forward? Additionally, what kind of research is needed to learn more about adapting innovation and scaling innovation from LMICs? (40:45)

What one-sentence takeaway do you have for the audience? (45:30)

How does one institutionalize different sanitation practices into places such as urban slums? (52:20)

To close the panel we asked Acharya, given what we’ve been hearing on the panel, how has this influenced your thinking, particularly in regards to bringing innovation from LMICs to the US? (57:20)

Lastly, the webinar included two important announcements. At 49:47, Andrea Taylor announced GHIC’s development of a framework for adapting innovations into new contexts. The resource aims to outline essential tasks and common challenges at each stage of the process for each type of stakeholder (innovator, provider, policymakers, etc). The group is seeking feedback and input from innovators on the framework, so please reach out to her in order to do so. Lastly, the team would love to receive proposals for initiatives for the LAN to address.

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