Center for Health Innovation

The UNC Center for Health Innovation is a small resource center that promotes the development of patient-centered innovations designed to address the current challenges facing our nation’s health care delivery system related to cost efficiency, quality of care, innovative health care delivery, and alignment of incentives among industry participants.

The Center’s mission is “to initiate, evaluate, disseminate and support adoption of disruptive innovations in the delivery and financing of health care that are patient centered and increase value with improved health outcomes and lower costs.”

Disruptive innovations are often aimed at a set of customers whose needs are being ignored by industry leaders, and generally they create a new value proposition for the customer such as greater simplicity, convenience, and quality often at a lower price.

The Center manages innovation programs and projects, develops external partnerships, consults with internal and external innovators, and provides funding for innovative initiatives. It manages a diverse portfolio of novel projects across focus areas such as care delivery models, payment model redesign, digital health, data sciences and analytics, and translational research. 

One way The Center supports internal innovation is through the Innovation Pilot Awards program. Since the program’s inception, over $1.8M has been awarded to 41 teams.