The race to the finish line. Your heart racing. Your legs being pushed to their limits while your opponent gradually comes into your peripheral vision. You see it up ahead…the line that separates the winners from the losers. The visible mark in the pavement that brings your efforts to a sweet, victorious end.
Can you see it?
Good. Because I have a feeling that what is taking place around the globe in various sectors such as philanthropy, economic development and citizen democracy has finally set its eyes on the world of health. In my case, public health – however many aspects of health care are being transformed by this phenomenon. What is this movement that is flexing its muscles and causing global change?
Crowd-sourced innovation.
Let me give you a few scenarios in which the minds of many are helping to push forward a new age of eye opening innovation that I believe will be the basis of public health developments in the near future:
Resource Poor Areas & Global Health
We are coming to terms that the world is getting smaller. With the tools that have cropped up over the past few years which the social Web has dropped into our laps, it’s no wonder that those who are trying to improve the lives of the many are picking them up and putting them to use. Technology and innovation are now becoming readily available to individuals and countries who many associate with the poorest of conditions. But think about it – what better situation to create helpful, easy-to-use tools than for those who are in dire need?
In this area, Microsoft created an open invitation with their contest Mobile Challenge for Development. With the help of NetSquared and a focus on the Millenium Development Goals, the hot field of mobile technology for development gets another boost. Great innovations such as Ushahidi and FrontlineSMS have been hugely useful and popular. Along with the Netsquared N2Y4 Mobile Challenge, there has been a tidal wave of pretty fantastic ideas from alot of people in this space. By the way, the winners of both contests are being announced during the Netsquared conference which is currently underway.
Disease Specific Problem Solving
Diabetes. HIV/AIDS. Osteoporosis. These are just a few examples of diseases/conditions that affect an increasingly large amount of people and for years public health professionals have been seeking ways to improving prevention tactics as well as treatment options. Imagine what we could come up with if we enlisted the help of people outside of the health world to improve aspects related to user experience, design and communication methods! That is exactly what Amy Tenderich of DiabetesMine thought about when she first launched the DiabetesMine Design Challenge (I also wrote about this year’s challenge). Innovative thinkers from all backgrounds including patients, engineers, designers, developers, entrepreneurs and students were invited to take part in the challenge – they even had an Under 18 category! Ultimately the winners chosen were two grad students from Northwestern University.
Health Care Reform
Lastly we come to overall health care – making some much needed changes. Without a doubt, there are many differing opinions on what should change about health care, so catering to those opinions and ideas are a perfect way to get the ball rolling. One of the contests surrounding health care innovation that has gotten quite a bit of buzz is what the X-Prize Foundation is doing. Being well known for their competitions to drive innovation, the Foundation decided to start something with health, thus unveiling their Healthcare X Prize that a few of my colleagues have been writing about. This is an organization that has no ties to health initiatives but decided that what they do with competition could benefit the health care industry. That’s key.
Finally, an organization that is widely known for their work in public health – the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – will soon be choosing a winner for their Design for Better Health competition (in conjunction with Changemakers). The competition is geared toward ideas that will help people make healthier choices. Two big “do-good” organizations teaming up to foster innovation.
What Does It All Add Up To?
- Many aspects of the health spectrum are being opened up to the minds of many to help create new and better tools/ways to improve lives
- Public Health especially is a field ripe for introducing new ideas from a variety of sources, including design, user experience and the increasing tool belt of new media
- Challenges and competitions will help shake many public health professionals from what may have been a long sleep with dreams of simply going through the motions; those who see opportunity may jump at these chances
- Support from non-traditional organizations hold the key to expanding the effectiveness of public health initiatives and innovation
- A new generation, a new guard of public health leaders and innovators will most likely emerge using these tactics and the ones who do not begin to at least attempt to get on board with a cursory knowledge will be shipwrecked on the SS Obsolete
Let me leave with you two quotes from Henry J. Kaiser:
I make progress by having people around me who are smarter than I am and listening to them. And I assume that everyone is smarter about something than I am.
Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition – in having put forth the best within you.
Folks, in THIS race for healthier lives and improved lifestyles, there are no losers…only winners.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Andre —
I liked this post a lot. It inspired me to do a related post on the Project HealthDesign site http://tiny.cc/xYVMJ looking at the role of crowdsourcing in healthcare in general (not specifically public health, though I agree that area is very ripe).
I think the recent amplification of contests and other kinds of crowdsourcing (in health and beyond) is due to changes in IT and how we use it (like twitter). While all of this is exciting and holds great potential for creative problem solving, we’ll need to find new ways to process and choose efficiently from an ever-growing pot of information and ideas.
Fantastic article Andre. Great depth of examination and wide source of applicable ‘nuggets’.
I couldn’t agree more that not only is the physical (including web-based) landscape shifting in Public Health, but the social landscape is also shifting in the way practitioners, researchers, and consumers experience Public Health.
While technology is a huge catalyst for this, I think it would be short sighted to slap 2.0 on the back with an atta-boy.
Wow Andre, fantastic post! There was a lot of discussion about healthcare this past weekend at Mobile Tech 4 Social Change in Halifax. Your comment “shipwrecked on the SS Obsolete” is bang on:
“A new generation, a new guard of public health leaders and innovators will most likely emerge using these tactics and the ones who do not begin to at least attempt to get on board with a cursory knowledge will be shipwrecked on the SS Obsolete”
Somewhere along the way, we’ve created walls (aka policies, regulations, boards, red tape) which are now limiting innovation. I believe we need to take a step back and ask ourselves; are these walls helping us or hurting us?
I agree, competitions are an important way to break down these walls because they really challenge the norm. But equally important, are people like yourself, spreading the message of hope and in the process, inspiring others.
Excellent overview of what we can expect (or at least hope for) as more of us realize what we can do. Too often I think we dwell on what we can’t do, or what’s wrong with our health care system, so it’s refreshing to view this as a healthy race to better lifestyles.
I do think social software and social communities can provide the conditions and resources for increasing awareness of public health, creating global and local initiatives for supporting healthy lifestyles and enhancing communication throughout the entire health care distribution chain.
User design and experience is as much an imoprtant feature of high quality health care as it is in software design. We don’t often think of design in our health care system, but it’s central to the problem of providing the best conditions for healthy living.
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