Heard About "Public Health Entrepreneurship" ?? Better to Know It Soon !!

Public Health, a field which is widely known for creating positive change in the health of population
But, whenever we think or hear about the scope of public health, 1^st or last thing that usually comes to our mind is: either designing/working in program or being a researcher with loads of scientific publications or a lecturer/professor in some renowned colleges
This sums up that being a public health professional; either you are a program person or a researcher or a teacher, that’s it! (At least to majority of the people who are working in public health or have heard about public health) and moreover it is either government, academic or non-profit thing
However, there is another BIG area of exploration into this limited scope looking field, which is known as Public Health Entrepreneurship (PHE)!! This concept adds a lot of innovation, flexibility, economic stability and broad horizon of creativity to act upon.
Public Health Entrepreneurship is: “The opportunistic creation and implementation of catalytic innovations intended to offer sustained improvement in the health of populations in the face of need; without being limited by the resources currently in hand involving collaboration with and accountability to the constituency served and the outcomes”- Scott Frank, Tom Conlon May 2005
Although this concept of Public Health Entrepreneurship looks new and bizarre (to some), it holds immense potential to fulfill the primary goal of the field (public health) itself, which is to make positive change in the lives of population.
Especially in the developed world, different renowned universities have already made it as a mandatory module in their curriculum of public health while most of the developing countries are still mesmerized with the concept
As most of us know that, whenever we are to implement any solutions to improve health care of the people, one of the biggest obstacles emerges as financial burden associated with the solution suggested. This creates a long barrier between the solution and its implementation (which might be of dire need with regard to the health of the people) and always creates a big hole of “know-do-gap”
Therefore, public health problems of current world require quick, reliable, innovative and sustainable grounds for problem solving. This reliability and sustainability can be achieved greatly by the means of entrepreneurship as being innovative and generating profit (which is at the heart of business) is the next name to sustainability
This notion is also in high demand for current and future generation not only because entrepreneurial sector is widely enlarging but also because of the consistent decrease in public sector and non-profit funding sources along with challenging and demanding labor market scenario all over the globe. Thus, today’s global market requires entrepreneurial thinking for solving public health problems.
PHE has gained its pace through the built-in concept of social entrepreneurship which covers wide range of ventures like; education, housing, workforce development, clean energy, micro-finance, global health initiatives etc. One of the best examples of social entrepreneurship model is the concept of “Health insurance” which can be considered as a milestone in connecting health with entrepreneurship.
Some examples of entrepreneurial ventures for public health entrepreneurs are:
Source: Hernandez et al., 2014
Apart from these ventures, there are some live examples of Public Health Entrepreneurship which is currently being implemented in the field level by public health graduates of various universities like Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and University of Michigan SPH etc. Some of these live examples that are running in the field include:
- “Establishing link between grocery retailers and a ride-share program to enable transportation-limited individuals to shop for healthy foods in well-stocked grocery stores.”- Winner of Annual Innovation in Action competition in University of Michigan
- iThermonitor, a thermometer sensor connected to the iPhone app for continuously observing body temperature and iFertracker, a smart fertility tracker- developed by MPH Graduate of Harvard T.H. School of Public Health
- Developing 911 system/ emergency medical system in countries which don’t have it- developed by public health graduate of Columbia university etc
Furthermore, other industries and entrepreneurship projects related to public health may include:
- design and development of healthy homes
- sustainable approaches to water, energy and food production
- healthy food stores
- primary care tobacco cessation projects
- health and recreational institutions
- behavior change institutes
- information and communication
- Smoking/tobacco cessation reality TV programs etc
Entrepreneurship also provides economically self-sustaining solution to public health problems which is the top most thing that we lack in most of our current public health programs and solutions
PHE can be more attractive and compelling also because an individual can grow both financially and socially (by creating positive social impact) at the same time.
Public Health entrepreneurs also have the opportunity to build a innovative enterprise which balances financial sustainability creating public health impact
Also, public health offers plenty of in-built opportunities for entrepreneurship because:

Apart from all the scopes and opportunities of this newly looking branch of public health, we must be aware that being a public health entrepreneur also requires an individual to develop some crucial skills like:
- Multiframe perspective
- Proactiveness
- Reflectiveness
- Legal and regulatory structures
- Marketing and communications
- Finance
- Market research and evaluation
Public Health entrepreneurship does not only mean generating profit for own good and wealth. Generating profit is also needed to scale up the enterprise in a bigger level so that bigger social impacts can be created. So, if we are to create higher value in the society, why not use business model for more innovation, more flexibility, more self-sustainability, more opportunity and more freedom in a long run?
Thus, it’s time to blend business mindset with problem solving at the social and global level so that all the public health professionals can revolutionize health care solutions through the notion of Public Health Entrepreneurship..and then NEVER LOOK BACK AGAIN!