Advancing Economies and Health Systems to Improve Equity

For more than two decades, Paul Clyde has worked with dozens of companies experimenting with different business models in low- and middle-income countries.

From small startups to large organizations like Novo Nordisk and Johnson & Johnson, Clyde collaborates with companies and other partners in the finance, energy, education, and healthcare sectors on projects that advance economic development through the development of profitable business models.

Clyde’s global health work has focused on businesses that support healthcare delivery—not only hospitals and clinics but also suppliers of medical equipment and other vital health instruments.

Clyde’s interests align with the Center for Global Health Equity’s themes of strengthening systems for health and addressing social and environmental determinants of health.

“My focus is always on the business models or the ways to use business tools effectively in healthcare provision. And I have always enjoyed and benefited from connecting with others from different disciplines who are engaged in the same area,” Clyde says.

Michigan is highly unusual, if not unique, in the broad range of highly ranked programs that are relevant to global health.

Through his broad engagement with international partners, Clyde helps healthcare companies evaluate specific business practices so they can improve their ability to reduce costs or cover costs through revenue generation. He notes that one of the quickest ways to increase the number of people served in these markets is to increase the number of clinics, hospitals, and suppliers that are able to operate profitably.

Clyde says one of the most important benefits of being involved with the Center for Global Health Equity is the range of expertise represented across the Center’s diverse membership: “Many of the faculty partners I’ve met through the Center do research in clinical health, an area not directly related to the work I do. But in leading and supporting various global health projects, it is important for me to have an understanding of that area.”

As president of the William Davidson Institute, Clyde was already familiar with initiatives that understand how economic development and improved health systems go hand in hand. And he is excited about the ongoing growth of the global health equity movement at the University of Michigan.

“Michigan is highly unusual, if not unique, in the broad range of highly ranked programs that are relevant to global health,” Clyde says. “And the Center for Global Health Equity has been a great catalyst in accelerating that work and making connections for further collaboration.”

In one of the Center’s first Challenge Group Grants, Clyde and Kathleen Sienko of Michigan Engineering have been working with Abena Tannor, one of the first doctors in sub-Saharan Africa trained in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, to develop novel approaches for commercializing new technologies designed specifically for use in LMIC settings. Other key team members involved in the Challenge Group Grant include Kentaro Toyama (School of Information), Rockefeller Oteng (Michigan Medicine), Grace Burleson (College of Engineering), and Claire Hogikyan (William Davidson Institute).

To bring safe and effective medical devices to market more rapidly in Ghana, the team conducted design practitioner interviews to identify contextual factors considered during a design process that could affect commercialization and sustained use. Preliminary results from this pilot study were incorporated into an external grant proposal. The team is also developing a pilot program to support local research capacity in Ghana to accelerate the development, implementation, and scaling of global health technologies.

One of the devices the team is hoping to develop is a device for rehabilitation of the hand. The first model was developed by a team of engineering students in collaboration with Dr. Tannor in Ghana. The model combines a number of different rehabilitation devices into one. Initial reviews from relevant doctors and therapists have been quite positive and work has begun on developing the business model that will work to produce this in Ghana.  

A cross-disciplinary institute like the Center, Clyde observes, “can thrive as it convenes the broad range of expertise Michigan boasts—not only health-science fields like nursing, medicine, public health, pharmacy, social work, dental, and kinesiology but also many other disciplines that might be less obvious—like business, law, environment and sustainability, and engineering—but are no less important to developing projects that can truly advance community health in a variety of settings.”

—Josh Messner

More about Paul

Paul Clyde is the Tom Lantos Professor of Business Administration, President of the William Davidson Institute, and Movses and Maija Kaldjian Collegiate Lecturer of Business Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Prior to joining the university, Paul was an economist at the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice and a consultant with National Economic Research Associates. While at the Antitrust Division, he advised the governments of many transition economies on their competition laws and natural monopoly laws.

In 1993, Clyde lived in Slovakia and served as an economic adviser to the governments of the Czech Republic and Slovakia on competition policy. Awards include Teacher of the Year, the Andy Andrews Distinguished Service Award, and the Collegiate Lecturer. He has published articles in a number of journals including The Journal of Finance, Managerial and Decision Economics, and Economic Inquiry. He received his PhD in Economics from UCLA and his BS in Business from Indiana University.