Highly Commended
The What If? Accelerator
with support from Virgo Health
Summary of work
It is time to ask ourselves What If?
What If we could set up a digital tumour board to help oncologists prioritise and manage complex patient cases?
What If we could support patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) between clinic visits?
What If we overhaul outdated policies and practices that prevent women with breast cancer receiving biopsies and treatment?
These are just some of the ideas we made a reality.
By asking this simple question What If?, we have helped affiliates across Roche to achieve their North Star vision: delivering better outcomes for more patients, faster. As a direct result of the initiative,89% of participants feel their confidence to contribute to the North Star has significantly improved or improved.
The What If? Accelerator is a business innovation initiative that encourages teams to partner closely with their customers and stakeholders to address pressing challenges in healthcare.
By rewarding unconventional thinking and new, experimental ways of working, innovation activists across the business were able to turn breakthrough ideas into reality. 394 Roche participants and 165 customers from 11 countries generated 158 ideas. From these, nine exciting projects were launched that continue to improve patient care and enhance healthcare outcomes today.
Judges’ comments
The What If? Accelerator created big change in multiple countries across Europe and had an impact on both employee behaviour and health outcomes. It felt like an end-to-end innovation and linked clearly to increased engagement at Roche. This is a great example of how to get an innovation right in a big company across a number of countries – truly impressive!
