Regulatory Sandboxes: A Cure for mHealth Pilotitis?

Abhishek  Bhatia; Rahul  Matthan; Tarun   Khanna; Satchit  Balsari

Article | Journal of Medical Internet Research | September 2020

Regulatory Sandboxes: A Cure for mHealth Pilotitis?

by Abhishek Bhatia, Rahul Matthan, Tarun Khanna and Satchit Balsari

Abstract

Mobile health (mHealth) and related digital health interventions in the past decade have not always scaled globally as anticipated earlier despite large investments by governments and philanthropic foundations. The implementation of digital health tools has suffered from two limitations: (1) the interventions commonly ignore the “law of amplification” that states that technology is most likely to succeed when it seeks to augment and not alter human behavior; and (2) end-user needs and clinical gaps are often poorly understood while designing solutions, contributing to a substantial decrease in usage, referred to as the “law of attrition” in eHealth. The COVID-19 pandemic has addressed the first of the two problems—technology solutions, such as telemedicine, that were struggling to find traction are now closely aligned with health-seeking behavior. The second problem (poorly designed solutions) persists, as demonstrated by a plethora of poorly designed epidemic prediction tools and digital contact-tracing apps, which were deployed at scale, around the world, with little validation. The pandemic has accelerated the Indian state’s desire to build the nation’s digital health ecosystem. We call for the inclusion of regulatory sandboxes, as successfully done in the fintech sector, to provide a real-world testing environment for mHealth solutions before deploying them at scale.

Keywords: COVID-19; mHealth; digital health; design thinking; regulation; intervention; regulatory sandbox; Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Design; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; India;

Format: Electronic

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Citation:

Bhatia, Abhishek, Rahul Matthan, Tarun Khanna, and Satchit Balsari. "Regulatory Sandboxes: A Cure for mHealth Pilotitis?" Journal of Medical Internet Research 22, no. 9 (September 2020).

While there is evidence about labor market discrimination based on race, religion, and gender, we know little about whether physical appearance leads to discrimination in labor market outcomes. We deploy a randomized experiment on 1,000 respondents in India between April and May 2020 to investigate how “looks” affect labor market outcomes. Using machine learning and computer face rendering techniques, we simulate North, South, and Northeastern Indian faces and randomize two waves of treatments where we attach faces with otherwise identical CVs. However, the second wave also contains a vignette where we provide respondents with information about the incidence of discrimination. We focus on Northeastern Indian faces that resemble those in China to focus on the potential for discrimination that has historically been present in anecdotal accounts. While we do not find evidence of discrimination against Northeastern faces in the first wave, we do so in the second among those who do not see the vignette. We provide suggestive evidence that these results are consistent with the presence of homophily under limited attention.

Pallak Seth, Group CEO of PDS Multinational Fashions, is contemplating options to bring better collaboration across his global apparel supply chain platform. PDS, a group of 50-plus subsidiary companies, each led by its own CEO and with different apparel industry specialties, has grown rapidly over the past decade, yet the industry is increasingly competitive and challenges remain constant. Looking for ways to reach the Group’s 2023 goals of $2 billion in revenue, Seth and his executive board are considering two ways to increase collaboration and reward performance: a joint P&L approach, to drive partnerships across the subsidiaries, and an employee stock option plan, to unlock value across the Group.

Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2019 (Revised August 2020)

Engineering an Inclusive Bioeconomy

Tarun Khanna, Raffaella Sadun and Susie L. Ma

In 2019, entrepreneur Juan Carlos Castilla-Rubio was developing a project he hoped could generate and share wealth from the natural resources of the Amazon without destroying those resources. His idea, called Earth Bank of Codes (EBC), would create a library of the genomic codes of all known species that could be tapped for discovery and innovation, from new medical interventions to more efficient manufacturing processes. He proposed to use blockchain technology to make the data both accessible and trackable so that its use could be monitored. Castilla-Rubio envisioned a time when a company in the U.S. could access a biological asset from the Peruvian Amazon, develop and commercialize a product based on the asset, and have a fraction of the resulting sales land directly in the bank account of various beneficiaries, including the Peruvian government and indigenous communities. Now he was facing major decisions about how to structure EBC to achieve his goals. Should he start at the top and build partnerships with national governments and inter-governmental organizations as the cornerstone of EBC? Or would it be better to forge ahead with a few stakeholders in an entrepreneurial project?

Keywords: Decision Making; Development Economics; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Intellectual Property; Emerging Markets; Market Design; Marketplace Matching; Science; Genetics; Natural Environment; Environmental Sustainability; Climate Change; Social Enterprise; Strategy; Strategic Planning; Technology; Ownership; Social Psychology; Trust; Society; Biotechnology Industry; South America; Amazon Basin;

Citation:

Khanna, Tarun, Raffaella Sadun, and Susie L. Ma. "Engineering an Inclusive Bioeconomy." Harvard Business School Case 720-356, September 2019. (Revised August 2020.) View Details

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Regulatory Sandboxes: A Cure for mHealth Pilotitis?

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