Where Health Innovation Begins: The Role of Academia

 

Recent regional assessments (CARIBEquity Caribbean Innovation Ecosystem Assessment) developed by Startup Genome & McIntyre Consulting Services show that every ecosystem in the region, including Barbados, remains in the Activation Phase: a stage marked by low startup output, limited startup experience, fragmented networks, and persistent gaps in trust and local connectedness.

The path forward is well understood: building investor literacy, reforming regulatory frameworks, formalising diaspora investment channels, creating tiered financing pathways, and strengthening regional coordination. FutureHEALTH is actively contributing to this work alongside partners, because these system-level reforms are essential to unlocking scale.

But the report is equally clear on another point: funding solutions in isolation will not be effective. In an Activation Phase ecosystem, capital, policy, and infrastructure only work if there is a steady pipeline of people prepared to use them well.

That is why we believe this work must start earlier; before accelerators, before pitch decks, and often before someone ever calls themselves an entrepreneur. There is real value in planting seeds, building curiosity, and experimenting with problem-solving alongside students and early talent.

Starting upstream: The COMP1170 Pilot

In 2025, FutureHEALTH partnered with the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, to run a pilot integrating health tech and entrepreneurship into COMP1170, a first-year computer science entrepreneurship course with more than 170 students.

The intent was not to produce startups. It was to test something more foundational: if we deliberately orient early business-building and project exploration toward health, and expose students to real stakeholders from the outset, can we begin cultivating a stronger, more responsible health innovation pipeline?

Designing for context before solutions

We structured the early weeks of the course around context, not ideation.

In Weeks 1–2, two physicians (Dr. Makeba Brooks and Dr. Carl Ward)  joined the classroom to walk students through Barbados’ health landscape, highlighting both contrasts and common challenges across public and private systems. These sessions were not only about presenting problem statements. They were about building systems literacy: how care flows, where constraints sit, and why health innovation carries responsibilities that extend far beyond code.

Following this, four additional stakeholders: health tech entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, and technology experts, shared their journeys and decision-making realities. Their role was not to inspire shortcuts, but to help students understand trade-offs: navigating regulation, earning trust, and building in environments where failure carries real consequences.

This approach reflects a simple reality: early-stage ecosystems are rarely limited by ideas. They are limited by relationships; by trust, exposure, and opportunities to learn from those who have navigated the system before.

What “pipeline” really means in practice

A pipeline is often described as a sequence of programmes. In practice, it is a sequence of moments; when interest forms, confidence builds, and people begin to see themselves as part of a system they had not previously considered.

For many students, this pilot marked their first real encounter with the health sector, not only as an industry, but as a space for innovation. Health touches all of us, whether through our own lived experience or that of a parent, grandparent, friend, or family member.

That proximity mattered. Students began asking sharper questions about users, incentives, ethics, and feasibility across public and private contexts. Some went on to apply to the FutureHEALTH Incubator, not because they had fully formed solutions, but because they had developed enough curiosity and confidence to keep exploring.

In environments like the Caribbean, optimising too early for execution can narrow the field. The more strategic outcome is to widen it: to cultivate curiosity, responsibility, and the confidence to engage across sectors before individuals ever label themselves “entrepreneurs.” Over time, those early moments compound, shaping stronger builders, more grounded ventures, and a healthier culture of collaboration.

Health innovation does not begin with companies, nor does it end with them. It begins when people see health as a space they can shape: through technology, through systems, and through their everyday work. That is how pipelines endure: by expanding who feels responsible for change.