GAITS for Innovation Programs
A structured platform for program directors and funders, used by more than 1,000 teams over eight years, giving every team the same evidence-based path and giving program leaders clear visibility of progress across the entire cohort.
▾
The Challenge
Most innovation programs lack a common standard for measuring team progress and a structured way to deploy scarce mentor time efficiently — two gaps that are critical to program success, since mentors are often the single most important factor in whether a team advances.
Without a shared framework, the same "stage" can mean very different things across teams in the same cohort. Mentors give advice based on experience and instinct rather than a consistent evidence base. Portfolio managers have no reliable way to compare progress across projects. And when funders ask for evidence of program impact, the data is hard to aggregate and harder to defend.
Most innovation funding programs now rely on mentors to work directly with teams. Without a structured framework capturing what work has been done and what comes next, mentors spend too much time getting up to speed on each team's situation, at the expense of the high-value feedback and guidance they are there to provide. GAITS addresses this directly: structured workflows allow mentors to engage efficiently with teams, other mentors and advisors, and portfolio managers, while the platform's built-in guidance on next steps reduces the time mentors spend orienting and increases the time they spend advising.
GAITS gives every team the same structured path through the Healthcare Innovation Cycle, with defined Deliverables at every stage across four dimensions: Clinical/Workflow, Market/Business, Regulatory, and Technical/Science. Progress becomes visible, comparable, and defensible across the entire cohort.
Mentors are critical to a program's success, and their time is scarce. By giving mentors immediate visibility into exactly where each team stands, what has been completed, and what comes next, GAITS dramatically reduces time spent getting up to speed and maximises the time available for high-value guidance. The platform's structured workflows also make it easier for mentors to coordinate with each other and with portfolio managers, ensuring teams receive consistent, well-informed support throughout their journey.
▾
Platform Capabilities
Portfolio-wide tools for visualizing progress against plan, tracking customizable metrics, and coordinating mentors and evidence across the cohort.
The GAITS platform gives program directors the tools to oversee every team in their cohort, with the detail needed to intervene early and the portfolio-level view needed to report meaningfully on program outcomes.
See every team's maturity level across all four domains at a glance. Sortable progress tables and drill-down access to any aspect of any project across the whole cohort.
Deliverables are bundled into structured Work Packages aligned with funding tranches. Portfolio Managers can visualize each team's progress against plan and drill down to the underlying data and evidence.
Track the metrics that matter to your funders and stakeholders. Program-level metrics can be defined and customized for each cohort, giving Portfolio Managers a consistent view of key indicators across all teams.
Mentors have a private workspace for notes and observations not visible to the team. Program directors can monitor mentor activity and ensure consistent support across all sites.
Sub-portfolios support complex programs with multiple partners or funding streams, all within a single platform. Hierarchical access control keeps each group's data appropriately scoped.
Every team works to the same set of core Deliverables for their solution type, making progress genuinely comparable across the cohort. Teams can also add custom Deliverables to add specificity. Six solution types are currently supported, from MedTech to Digital Medicine to Therapeutics.
▾
Roles and Structure
Three roles working together within a structured program: Portfolio Manager, Mentor, and Team Member.
Each GAITS Solution Site supports three role types with appropriate access levels. At program level, the Portfolio Manager coordinates the whole cohort, assigning mentors, overseeing progress, and managing access across all Solution Sites.
Portfolio Manager
Creates and manages Solution Sites across the program, assigns solution types and mentors, monitors cohort-wide progress, and maintains private SWOT notes on each team. Sub-portfolios allow hierarchical management for large or multi-partner programs.
Mentors
Assigned by the Portfolio Manager to support one or more teams. Mentors access each team's Solution Site and a private mentor workspace, shared with the Portfolio Manager, for observations and feedback not visible to the team.
Team Members
Work through the Healthcare Innovation Cycle Deliverables on their private Solution Site. Three access levels are available: Site Admin (manages the site), Full Access, and View Only for advisors and external reviewers.
▾
Track Record
Eight years, more than 1,000 teams, and a growing system of record paving the way for evidence-informed, AI-assisted innovation support.
The GAITS frameworks were developed from direct experience with healthcare innovation teams. CIMIT's more than 20 years of supporting innovators shaped the Healthcare Innovation Cycle. VERITAS, the H-BMC, and the Funding Readiness Framework were developed and refined through the CRAASH program, and have since been adopted by leading innovation programs worldwide.
GAITS is becoming the system of record for healthcare innovation programs. Every team's evidence, including interviews, stakeholder reports, meeting notes, regulatory submissions, and more, is stored in a structured, private repository. Insights derived from aggregate, anonymized patterns across 1,000+ teams are used to continuously refine the framework. As AI tools mature, this longitudinal record will enable better pattern recognition and more adaptive guidance, while preserving full data privacy. GAITS is not just supporting innovation, it is learning from it.
Interested in adopting GAITS for your program? Contact John Collins to discuss how GAITS can be configured for your cohort.