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Background: Global health researchers and partnerships often discount the potential for mutual learning
and benefit to address shared health challenges across high and low- and middle-income settings.
Drawing from a 30-year partnership called AMPATH that started between Indiana University in the US and
Moi University in Kenya, we describe an innovative approach and program for mutual learning and benefit
coined “reciprocal innovation.” In this paper, we define reciprocal innovation and identify its core
principles with illustrative examples and describe building a reciprocal innovation program established in
2018 at the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI).
Results: Reciprocal innovation harnesses a bidirectional, co-constituted, and iterative exchange of ideas,
resources, and innovations to address shared health challenges across diverse global settings. The
success of the AMPATH partnership in western Kenya, particularly in the areas of HIV/AIDS and
community health, resulted in several innovations in Kenya being “brought back” to the US. To facilitate
and promote the bidirectional flow of learning and innovations, the Indiana CTSI reciprocal innovation
program hosts annual meetings (hosted in Indiana and Kenya) of multinational researchers and
practitioners to identify shared health challenges across diverse global settings and facilitate partnership
building and collaboration. The program supports pilot grants for projects that demonstrate reciprocal
exchange and benefit. The program has produced a wealth of educational materials, including videos,
webinars and an online dashboard, to train investigators on reciprocal innovation approaches in global
health. Lessons learned in building a reciprocal innovation program include increasing awareness of
reciprocal approaches among investigators and in supporting collaboration for global–local research.
While many global health investigators have strong collaborators with international partners, a challenge
has been partnering with “local” Indiana researchers to create reciprocal learning and benefit.
Conclusions: The transformative power of global health to address systemic health inequities embraces
equitable and reciprocal partnerships with mutual benefit across countries and communities of
academics, practitioners, and policymakers, as demonstrated through a reciprocal innovation approach.
Leveraging a long-standing partnership, the Indiana CTSI has built a reciprocal innovation program with
promise to redefine global health for shared wellbeing at a truly global scale. |
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