Executive MPH students seeking to become socially conscious entrepreneurs and innovators have a resource available to them that’s based at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH).
InnovateHealth Yale, (IHY) an academic program launched in 2014, is open to all Yale students. It supports the creation of innovative solutions to challenges in public health and education for underserved communities in the United States and in low-resource countries.
The tools provided by the program can be applied to a current organization or can be used to create a new venture. The concepts are the same.“InnovateHealth Yale is part of this great entrepreneurial network at the university,” said Fatema Basrai, IHY’s managing director. “It’s a resource that exists for students across the university who are interested and passionate about innovation in public health. We award funding and mentorship and coaching and programmatic co-curricular activities to support public health innovation.”
So far, the program has coached over 200 students, funded 66 startups, and awarded over $400,000 in impact grants and internship funding to a wide range of student ventures. Some of the alumni who have been helped by IHY have gone on to be funded by Techstars, MIT Solve, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and leading venture capital firms.
Assistance also comes in the form of teaching and mentoring. IHY has affiliated faculty who teach cross-disciplinary courses, and there’s a pool of public health-specific mentors from the Yale community who are willing to coach students. In some cases, EMPH students who have led successful careers have themselves served as mentors to other students. Occasionally, students are treated to the expertise of guest speakers who have made their marks in the public health venture sector. In addition, Basrai has office hours available for one-to-one coaching with students regarding their ideas or careers in the public health innovation space.
Financial assistance through two major prizes
Each spring, IHY presents two major competitive prizes at Startup Yale, a two-day event full of pitches and ideas. The Thorne Prize for Social Innovation in Health or Education, a $25,000 cash prize, is awarded to the best student-led venture focused on social innovation in health or education for underserved communities in the United States or in low-resource countries. The Rita Wilson Prize Fund in support of Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a $10,000 cash prize awarded to the best student-led venture focused on creating a technological solution to address a health disparity in the United States. In addition, IHY gives out $1,000 grants in the fall to student-led startups that need seed funding.
One never knows which public health venture will become the next success story, and as Basrai said, “Success can be defined in so many ways.” Some high-profile companies have been launched with the help of IHY.
April Koh, Yale College ’16, who co-founded Spring Health, the 2016 Thorne Prize-winner, with Adam Chekroud, PhD ‘18 (psychology), was recognized last year as the youngest woman CEO of a unicorn, a privately held startup valued at over $1 billion. Khushi Baby, an India-based company that makes digital necklaces that include a baby’s complete medical and vaccination information, was the first Thorne Prize recipient in 2014. Founded by four Yale Students, the organization has helped over 18 million people to date. In February 2023, one successful alum, Leslie Asanga, MPH ’20 returned to tell his story. Asanga, a pharmacist, founded 2020 Thorne Prize-winner Pills2Me, an app that arranges for pick-up and delivery of prescriptions from any pharmacy, and has since received funding from Techstars.
Basrai and IHY welcome any EMPH student who wants to create a venture and needs the encouragement to turn their ideas to advance public health into reality.
“InnovateHealth Yale is open to students across the University, and of course that includes the EMPH students,” Basrai said. “All of the grants are available for the EMPH students, as well as mentorship and coaching. There’s no specific programming just for EMPH students, but they are welcome to participate in anything that IHY does.”