policy

Driving change and improving health define both the role we want to play and the goal Noaber wants to achieve. This ambition is more relevant than ever! We put everything we have towards enhancing the health span of the general population and of every person that is part of that population. We strive to make the world healthier and more sustainable through innovation and the realization of our ‘Quadruple Aim.’ Not only through the activities and programs  supported by Noaber, but also by taking an initiating and accelerating role in enabling a system-based collaborative approach that integrates stakeholder interests and perspectives that provide the foundation with a sustainable transition.

Improving health

Demographic, social, and economic trends  put  increasing pressure on the healthcare sector’s sustainability. The recent pandemic was a stress test in this regard. These universal developments result in an ever-increasing  percentage of our GDP being spent on healthcare. However, increasing expenditure on healthcare does not go hand-in-hand with increased health, meaning positive health as defined by the Institute for Positive Health. Among other things, this is due to increased welfare and medical and technological  advancements; we live longer, but in a relatively unhealthy way, which is causing an increasing gap between lifespan and health span. For  people in underserved communities and with less advantageous social and economic conditions this is even more so the case.

At Noaber we believe that optimizing the health span enables people to fulfil their  potential and live their lives the way they desire. This is best served through a focus on health rather than sickness. That’s why we put population health and lifestyle first in our programs.  In these programs we develop, validate, and support solutions for living a healthier life. At scale, this will ultimately result in sustainable healthcare.

For people, health is not only defined by their physical and mental state of mind and body, but also through a sense of meaning and belonging within their social relations. We believe that being able to provide for and draw upon their social environment (“noabers”) is an integral part of health and contributes to optimizing healthspan. The value of social health seems underestimated at the moment. Therefore, at Noaber we strive to increase evidence, awareness and acceptance of social health as an integral element of quality of life   

Driving change

A focus on improving health makes sense, but is not yet fully incorporated into the current healthcare system. Regulation, reimbursement and workflows, among others, are focused on sickness rather than health. Whilst we can show efficacy and efficiency at an individual intervention level, change on a systemic level is required to make the transition towards a health focused approach. Such change is difficult as it requires people and organizations to alter their existing procedures, processes, and beliefs in order to accommodate this new approach. This change is taking place in a scattered landscape where cooperation between stakeholders is imperative in order to be successful.

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Such cooperation is very difficult to kick start and  requires leadership, commitment, dedication and resources. We want to create an environment in which new initiatives and approaches focused on enhancing health span are incubated, validated and accelerated. This provides the basis for an open innovation space that facilitates strategic collaboration between trusted partners in a flexible and entrepreneurial setting. Being an  independent organization with an entrepreneurial mindset and impact as its main driver, Noaber is well positioned to initiate and facilitate such cooperation between stakeholders. We can drive change at a systemic level and align stakeholders with this common goal through our own resources, knowledge, experience and networks, which are geared towards achieving that objective and facilitating others to do the same.

Pathfinder

We have adopted a programmatic approach to address the complex and interrelated elements of systemic change in clearly defined intervention fields. As a pathfinder Noaber initiates and  accelerates such programs with the intent to enhance stakeholder involvement and ultimately hand them over to system-level players or enable others to take on this role if they are  up to such challenge. We seek to remain engaged as long as our involvement  results in a meaningful contribution for systemic change towards optimizing health span. We initiated programs focused on population health, lifestyle (medicine) and social health as the main areas that require change and where Noaber can play an enabling role to facilitate the transition towards an active and healthy life. Given the complexity we plan to remain focused on and actively engaged in these programs for the years to come, while we continually evaluate the need for additional programs that align with the role we want to play and the goal we seek to achieve.

Our participation (made through Noaber Ventures) provides programs for professionals, patients and people to put the concepts of population health, lifestyle (medicine) and social health to work in daily practice. Once tested and proven meaningful in terms of our Quadruple Aim, they can be scaled for impact.

Persistence

During the past few years, we have tested, refined, and validated our approach towards driving change and improving health. We are convinced that this focus creates the best possible outcome for our ‘Noabers’ and that we can play a meaningful role in facilitating the associated transition. There seems to be momentum for this paradigm shift, but a long term approach remains essential. Whilst we can only facilitate others to put this change into motion, we have decided to put all our effort in terms of philanthropy, impact investments and mission related investments to ensure that we use this momentum. We are persistent in our approach to improve health and drive change.

Our investment policy

The overriding principle of Noaber Ventures’ investment strategy is to invest with impact. Impact investments are investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a meaningful contribution to the health of people and realize our Quadruple Aim alongside a financial return.  Our attribution relates to the early stage focus  in under-institutionalized domains . Our active involvement is intended to support and influence the project or participation with a focus on  outcome(s). Given the investment focus on companies with early stage ideas, pilot or startup or established but scaling up, the risk of the portfolio companies is considered high.