Perhaps the hardest thing to do in health care is provide a safe environment for new ideas to be tested. While safety and ethical concerns are often well-placed, they can stifle creative thinking. The desire for ‘evidence’ can also create pressure to get things right quickly, often on the first time of asking – an […]
It’s becoming fashionable to say that health care is really ‘sick care’ but who is really trying to work out what caring for health means? One group in the Nijmegen Area of the Netherlands is leading the charge and I was lucky enough to speak with its chief organiser, Chantal Walg. Pritpal S Tamber: Hi […]
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
In a departure from my usual interview format, today I am sharing a conversation with Ollie Smith, Director of Strategy and Innovation at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity. The Charity describes itself as an innovation catalyst and recently put out an invitation to tender looking for organisations to help them test the hypothesis that a solution to […]
Finding new business models takes time. And time is money. How much time and money might we need to turn health into a sustainable business that might offset the growth of the sickness industry that we call ‘health care’? No one really knows but in Michigan the Chelsea-Area Wellness Foundation has a cool US$25m to experiment with. […]
As more and more people echo that it’s going to take more than health care to care for our health, a few brave organisations are exploring what the other thing might be. One such organisations is Children’s Health in Dallas, Texas, who, together with the Business Innovation Factory (BIF) are seeking a deeper understanding of the social issues that […]
A discussion between healthcare professionals highlights need to challenge status quo by understanding how patients live and factor patients' needs into medical treatment.
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
Yesterday saw the launch of a new series in Stanford Social Innovation Review called ‘Communities Creating Health‘. It was commissioned by the Creating Health Collaborative and was inspired by a recent meeting on designing evaluations for what communities value. The meeting focussed on how evaluation designed around disease prevents us from seeing health for what it […]
There is much talk of the unsustainability of today’s health care systems and yet often this dialogue assumes the system is of primary importance – rather than the people the system was created to serve. The Nepal-based NGO, Possible, is asking itself how it creates a durable health care system, one that responds to the needs […]
It’s our lifestyles that are the problem. Our habits are making us sick. Our cultural norms are fuelling the rise in chronic conditions. The solution is simple: we have to change our culture. We’ve all heard versions of this message but its alleged simplicity is also its absurdity. What is culture? Where does it come […]
It’s pretty well understood that people from disadvantaged communities have more important things to worry about than their health. However, one general practitioner (primary care physician) in the southwest of England believes that if you start from what people actually want you can eventually impact their health and wellbeing. That general practitioner is Dr Jonathan […]
We will highlight Build My Health's revenue practice management tools, which could help physician practices add up to $250,000 to their practices.
The Creating Health Collaborative was formed to understand why, despite their potential, broader definitions of health remain only a fringe of health innovation. In today’s post, I am sharing their first report (opens a PDF) and have reproduced below an edited version of what the Collaborative thought were the emerging principles for creating health. We […]
There is nothing more convincing that someone citing research, and yet we often don’t know if what’s being cited is any good. Research can be bad if it’s poorly conducted or if the wrong evaluative method was used to answer the question. The methods we use in health care are often quite limited, especially when […]
Nine organisations have joined Wellthcare to debate and plan how to make creating health the norm. Last week was the first meeting. For the time-being the group is being called the ‘Creating Health Incubation Group’. The organisations are: Columbia University’s Earth Institute FSG Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity HICCup The Institute for a Sustainable Future The Institute […]
There was a moment, when I was sitting stage-side at TEDMED 2013, when I saw the future of health. It wasn’t bright, it wasn’t full of answers; it was complex, plural and a constant struggle. And yet it was full of collegiality, hope and respect. Three talks in particular, truly unravelled me. Sally Okun laid bare how […]
This post was first published on Wellthcare. The cost of health care is contributing to the social unrest we’re seeing all around the world and doctors are utterly failing to respond. Those were the two things I learnt last week at the biennial gathering of people working in the health insurance industry, a meeting that […]