Jens Grueger, a partner with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and fellow in the BCG Henderson Institute, talks about his experience partnering with Movement Health Foundation (MH) and explains why both organizations consider it essential to have a versatile measurement framework aligned with the objectives of MH initiative
MH: What is BCG Henderson institute?
Jens Grueger (JG): The BCG Henderson Institute is an internal think tank at BCG named after Bruce Henderson, the original founder of the Boston Consulting Group. Every year, five or six people are elected to this institute to conduct research in areas where the company believes having a distinct perspective would be helpful. We spend significant time on longer-term research that ultimately benefits the company. Our research areas include environmental sustainability, new leadership, future living, and health equity.
MH: How did you learn about Movement Health?
J.G.: Gonzalo Wartjes, Global Director of Growth & Partnerships from MH, reached out to Christoph Schweizer, CEO of (BCG), because he knew we were engaged in environmental and healthcare sustainability.
Christoph expressed to Gonzalo that he was very impressed with what Movement Health has achieved in such a short period. In those early conversations, he also shared that BCG is fully committed to doing its part for society. Christoph then introduced us to Gonzalo as they were looking for key strategic partners that could complement their expertise to work with. Since then, my colleague and BHI Fellow Srikant Vaidyanathan and our project leader, Natasha Pridacha have begun a series of conversations with our teams to allocate and identify the right resources and people within BCG to partner with the MH initiative.
MH: And how did the conversation evolve?
J.G.: We discussed areas of interest, and the measurement framework for MH’s work emerged as a relevant topic. We had the expertise to develop a specific measurement framework that would address the needs of MH. Thus, Healthcare is very complex, and nobody can improve it alone we conducted brainstorming sessions to identify issues that could help us to understand the particular aspects of MH and its initiatives and objectives. Our goal was to adjust our measurement framework in a way that is addresseding the various purposes and needs of MH.
MH: So, you are implying that not only you do need to have a great idea but also a measurement framework to make sure that it is a great idea?
J.G.: Yes, and I think that’s something I was aware of from having been in the pharma industry for a long time. Often companies are enthusiastic and passionate about going into areas where they want to provide innovative ways of strengthening health systems, improving patient outcomes, and increasing equity. Still, they need to consider how they will measure this and what success would look like.
MH: And that can be a problem…
J.G.: Yes. They often find that they don’t have a baseline to day to compare progress against. So, it’s tough to say how we have changed healthcare delivery in the various countries or geographies where we had initiatives or how we can communicate the successes, both in terms of the health outcomes and financial savings. Ultimately, everybody wants to improve health and,ideally, reduce the financial investment required for that. That’s also something important for MH. It is key to have this conversation about the measurement framework early on so that MH is prepared for that.
MH: How did you adapt your framework for MH?
J.G.: It starts with being clear about the purposes of your measurement. Then you can define the specific metrics. Only some of the measures you want to track may be available. Defining measurements is a big responsibility. In management, people say: ‘What gets measured, gets done.’ So, by specifying the measurements, you also influence people’s behaviors, and if you have the wrong measurements, you don’t get the kinds of behaviors that you want.
The idea was to start early and define what we want to measure in line with MH objectives and provide measures that incentivize people to do the right things and not just meet a certain number or criteria.
MH: When you say the measure, I imagine that you start in one point and end in some other, and there’s a result. Since MH has many projects in different parts of the world, how do you do that?
J.G.: We have provided MH a detailed playbook that proposes the steps you must go through to develop that framework for the initiatives you’re running. It outlines different metrics that MH can use to measure the outcomes and progress of its initiatives, depending on the specific objectives and context of each one. For instance, some countries focus more on health outcomes, while others focus more on equity and sustainability. The playbook provides a flexible and adaptable set of metrics that MH can use to make informed decisions about allocating its resources and prioritizing its initiatives, ultimately leading to improved health outcomes, equity, and sustainability.
MH: How long does it take for the outcomes?
J.G.: The problem with healthcare is that it takes a long time to see the impact of initiatives. Final outcomes like increasing survival or reducing certain diseases or complications may not be detectable within a year. However, intermediate endpoints can be measured, such as better collaboration and communication between healthcare professionals and decreasing costs in the system. There are metrics to measure the quality of the interaction between different groups and how well the systems are performing. These intermediate impacts can improve health outcomes, financial results, and patient experience. MH is working on developing metrics that align with its goals of achieving better outcomes and equity in healthcare.
MH: What have been the biggest challenges in this partnership?
J.G.: The biggest challenge you always have here is jumping to conclusions too quickly. In health issues, there are many different things at play. Sometimes when we see that patients do not have easy access to their doctors, people would say: ‘We have to make services cheaper.’ And then you find that even if it is cheaper, people don’t go and seek the doctor. In healthcare, things are typically a little bit more complicated. And that’s also important for MH. They are trying to get underneath the quick conclusions and see what is causing the issue and where we have to change things so that we can improve outcomes and the innovation can be transferred to other geographies.
MH: Can you share an example of that?
J.G.: We’ve looked at specific programs implemented in Colombia with a clinic trying to identify patients with chronic diseases to provide them with better services. If we really understand what was at the heart of changing or improving patient outcomes, we can transfer the learnings to other hospitals and other geographies.
So, I think the biggest challenge here is to ensure that people, upfront, spend the time to think about what it is that I want to know and that I want to achieve: what’s the purpose of measuring the solution, and what are its appropriate metrics?
This sounds very conceptual. At the heart of that, we have broken this down into a set of questions at every stage. For example, a nurse or a hospital manager can sit down and say:‘Okay, let’s get clarity on why I need to measure these things or how often I need to do that.’ This playbook gives them a structured way to go through the steps and then define the proper framework for their situation.
MH: Who are the users of this measurement framework?
J.G.: The leaders of MH, but equally, the people working with it. They all want to use the measurement framework to see how they progress. There could be external users - partners, new investors- or people that want to replicate some of the ideas of MH that you want to communicate the outcomes. We provide MH with a more straightforward way to think if those are their objectives and if these connect with the purposes of what they want to measure internally and externally for different goals.
MH: MH is attracting industries from different backgrounds. What do you think of working in this kind of environment?
J.G.: Healthcare is very complex, and nobody can do it alone. Everybody in MH has certain experiences and specific resources that would come together. The vision behind MH is to orchestrate all the different stakeholders to provide a common objective and purpose for everybody that participates so that everybody can ultimately see their contribution. This is ultimately what we jointly have achieved here! This can lead to more people becoming interested in joining MH. That’s the idea of the movement: to have, by 2030, a significant movement where we all work together to improve outcomes and ensure equitable access to modern health care.
MH: And what do you see when you look ahead to the future?
J.G.: I would expect more initiatives to use this playbook to set up their own measurement framework and see how it fits into the broader measurement framework. We delivered the project at the end of last year. Still, we want to engage with the people in MH and these specific initiatives to see how it has worked and what we can learn to improve the measurement framework. We want to see that this way of thinking around objectives, purpose, and measurements is helpful and provides good outcomes, so it helps get good results for everybody.
MH: Are you happy with the results so far?
J.G.: Of course! We will be very closely connected with Gonzalo, Hector, and others for this. We also want to publish this experience so that it can also be used in other places.
To further understand how your industry can help Movement Health and get involved, please get in touch with Gonzalo Wartjes at gonzalowartjes@movement-health.org