Health Futures Lab
Strengthening San Mateo Medical Center for the Future
San Mateo Medical Center’s Health Futures Lab is a small innovation group focused on developing new care delivery models that address problems that may be deeper or unknown to the broader health system.
While the medical center focuses on operations to meet current needs, the Health Futures Lab works with external partners and our patient community to develop the future of care.
As an externally funded program within San Mateo Medical Center, the Health Futures Lab is currently supported by grants from the Health Plan of San Mateo and the San Mateo County Health Foundation.
Focus on Innovation
The Health Futures Lab focuses on innovation by operating a portfolio of projects that address patients’ needs and aspirations and considering approaches that are wildly different than anything the medical center, or anyone else, is currently offering. These projects are translated into business model pilots that must simultaneously demonstrate greater access, health outcomes, patient experience, care team well-being, and financial sustainability. The medical center gets proven solutions to either roll out within existing service lines or launch new services.
Our Innovation Methodology
The Health Futures Lab’s innovation methodology is rooted in co-developing solutions with multiple stakeholders: the patient community, the care delivery (hospital and clinics) and the payor (the health plan).
Step One: Ethnography – methodologies of deep listening are used to assess the aspirations and needs of the community.
Step Two: Co-Design – the future is mapped out in partnership with the community, and stakeholders such as the care delivery system, community partner organizations (CBOs), the payor, and others.
Step Three: Care Pilot – models are deployed, tested and improved a until ready for spreading across the organization.
This methodology allows the medical center to be in community with our patients, increase financial stability, and reduce the risk of failure when introducing new ways of delivering care.
Current Innovation Projects
Camino a la Salud
The Camino a la Salud project is funded by the Health Plan of San Mateo. The project focuses on SMMC patients who have not yet engaged in care primary care in one of our clinics. The Lab conducted an ethnographic study with our unengaged Spanish-speaking patients in Redwood City and San Mateo. The study was followed by workshops where patients and community members co-design a primary care system they would like to experience. A care model pilot will be rolled out in the second half of 2026.
Youth Behavioral Health (Youth BH)
The Youth BH project, funded by the San Mateo County Health Foundation, focuses on mental health and integrated well-being for youth in San Mateo County. We are currently conducting the ethnographic research phase, where we collect stories from the youth (ages 16-22). The co-design phase will involve a method called World-Building, where youth creatively, yet rigorously, imagine a future world where mental health support is seamlessly integrated into everyday living and connected with the broader health ecosystem.
To build intergenerational equity in leadership for this project, we are collaborating with youth as Health Futures Fellows. We acknowledge the role of the youth in supporting their elders, especially those who are non-English monolingual. We created this opportunity to center on the lived experiences of young people and to build equitable youth engagement in healthcare leadership and decision-making.
Meet the Team
Neeraj Sonalkar, PhD (Innovation Officer, SMMC)
Neeraj leads the strategy and operations for the Health Futures Lab. He fosters the innovation ecosystem supporting SMMC by partnering with SMMC leadership, patient community, the Health Plan of San Mateo, and external organizations.
Eva Balint, MD, MS (Contractor, Clinical Implementation Partner)
Eva contributes a clinical perspective to the Health Futures Lab’s projects. She brings a wealth of experience, having led medical teams in both payor and provider organizations serving commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid populations.
Louisa Calhoon (Contractor, Human-Centered Designer)
Louisa helps with human-centered service design for the Health Futures Lab’s projects. She brings a crucial human-centered perspective to all activities and interactions that project the lab’s culture.