Health for America

Redacted from the foundation’s website:

Health for America (HFA) at MedStar Health is building a cadre of young innovators—with actionable skills and knowledge in health, design, entrepreneurship, and leadership—who create novel, sustainable, and scalable health solutions.

HFA grants fellowships to interdisciplinary talent within three years post-bachelor’s degree. It is embedded in MedStar Institute for Innovation (MI2) to make a difference on three levels:

• Motivating next-generation leaders to focus on health

• Creating novel solutions that improve health outcomes

• Increasing innovation capacity in the health system

The 11-month program is structured into three phases—exploration, ideation, and implementation—to ensure HFA fellows maximize learning, identify opportunities, and build a robust, sustainable health solution. Their experiential learning is complemented by a rigorous curriculum. HFA fellows are assigned a health topic each year and work closely with MedStar physicians and other clinical experts focused on it. MI2 also collaborates with 1776, a Washington, D.C.-based global startup incubator and seed fund, to provide educational, business, and investment opportunities, as well as mentorship and workspace.

Fellows are selected from a competitive pool of applicants with a wide variety of backgrounds, including computer science, technology, art, engineering, design, health, business, and more. Using essays, interviews, and references, fellows are selected based on their aptitude, creativity, passion, demonstrated teamwork skills, leadership, interpersonal skills, and integrity.

Deadline: January. See website for details.