Blogs

#innovatehealth Interview Series: Richard Bartlett on the Gold Standard for Health Innovation

Created: 02/29/12 by Evagelia Emily Tavoulareas

If you had to guess, what country would you say is the world leader in health innovation? According to Richard Bartlett, it’s India — thanks to a flexible regulatory environment, a government that is open to partnerships, and a dramatic need for low-cost health care options.

As he shares in this #innovatehealth interview, Rwanda and Kenya are also at the top of his list:

The Internet: a new paradigm in the right to communicate

Created: 02/23/12 by Changemakers Blogger

Editor's note: This article was written by Vanuza Ramos, contributing journalist for Ashoka Changemakers.

Almost a month after the violent eviction of thousands of poor residents from their homes in a settlement in Brazil, an event popularly known as the “massacre of Pinheirinho,” many net-izens continue to discuss the repercussions of this controversial and symbolic event. Social networks, blogs, and other independent media are reporting cases of violence and abuse that are often obscured by the mainstream media, signifying a pivotal change in communications created by virtual media.

The fact that the Internet has established itself as a powerful force for ensuring the right of communication is nothing new. What was not anticipated is that it would be used in an entrepreneurial way to disseminate knowledge, information and to protect fundamental rights to life—by using it socially. 

Brazil +3 more tags, citizen media, internet, ICT

Q&A with Jacquie Cutts, Maternal and Child Health Champion

Created: 02/22/12 by John Converse Townsend

Changemakers is changing. Through the new changeshops platform, we now offer improved ways to help build the world of social good. Changeshops users will be able to tell the online community what they need to grow their projects; search for collaborators, innovators, and competitions in the field; and access funding opportunities for world-changing ideas.

The changeshops community is growing each day. To get a preview of what might be in store, Changemakers is catching up with a few of the platform’s top users.

Today, Changemakers talked (change)shop with Jacquie Cutts, the founder, president, and CEO of Safe Mothers, Safe Babies, a nonprofit organization working to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality in Uganda.

Cutts has been a long-time supporter of participatory development and has worked to help rural communities understand maternal and child health from the local perspective, in addition to supporting more innovative health care initiatives like motorcycle ambulance programs which reduce barriers to accessing care.

changeshops, growchange, health; health care; innovate health; innovatehealth; access to health

Join International Women’s Day Twitter-based #SocEntSummit at #ChangemakeHERS, on March 6, 2012

Created: 02/21/12 by Changemakers Blogger

Ashoka Changemakers will host its first World Day #SocEntSummit on Twitter, this International Women’s Day from 1 - 5 p.m. IST / 3:30 – 7:30 a.m. EST. Titled #ChangemakeHERS, this event celebrates womanhood with some of the most outstanding women social entrepreneurs from all over the world. Save the date and spread the word!

Finally! A Dose of Innovation for the Maintenance of Health

Created: 02/21/12 by Changemakers Blogger

Editor's note: This post was written by Chloe Feinberg, knowledge consultant at Ashoka Changemakers®.

The idea of maintaining health is gaining ever more prominence and importance. Health maintenance is in some ways similar to health prevention, but is also quite different.

Preventive health is used to describe the many ways and opportunities to prevent the worsening of health or the development of disease. But what if a person is already sick? What about the individuals living with asthma, or who have high blood pressure?

body/mental health awareness, health; health care; innovate health; innovatehealth; access to health

ColaLife Tracks Change on Changeshop

Created: 02/17/12 by Changemakers Blogger

Editor's note: This post was written by Andrea Boston, freelance writer for Ashoka Changemakers.

ColaLife, the project that ingeniously piggybacks preventative medicines on deliveries of Coca-Cola, is using its Changemakers changeshop to show how it is gaining traction after emerging as one three winners of the Making More Health: Achieving Individual, Family and Community Well-Being competition.

ColaLife’s latest changeshop impact report states that Honda’s Dream Factory selected founder Simon Berry as one of nine “Cultural Engineers” who are spearheading gamechanging initiatives. Honda even donated a vehicle worth $40,000 to help ColaLife kick off its trial run in Zambia.

growchange, open growth

The Missing Link Between Ideas and Investment — Help Build It!

Created: 02/14/12 by Changemakers Blogger

Editor's note: This post was written by Tim Scheu, Ashoka Changemakers Senior Project Manager

In the coming months, you'll see a new suite of features on Changemakers.com that focus on growth—growth of impact, growth of capacity, growth of network. At the core of these tools is something called the Growth Planner.

Here's the thinking: You want support for your work. Support comes from people who are inspired by your idea and understand where your organization is headed. Changemakers' Growth Planner produces information that supporters need to engage and invest. 

growchange, open growth

#innovatehealth Interview Series: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Created: 02/13/12 by Evagelia Emily Tavoulareas

Hear Michelle Larkin (assistant vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) talk about how the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation views health innovation, and how they would like to see the national debate around health, prevention and wellness develop:

innovatehealth

Re-imagining Health Care for the 21st Century

Created: 02/10/12 by Changemakers Blogger

Editor's note: This article was written by Mercedes Jones, expert commentator for the Innovations for Health: Solutions that Cross Borders competition.

The old way of framing health care focuses on illness, not people, resulting in highly specialized medical practitioners. The Ashoka Changemakers Innovations for Health: Solutions that Cross Borders competition is uncovering solutions that are based on two main principles: 1) focusing on people and their rights in the health system, and 2) the value of collaborative advocacy.

health; health care; innovate health; innovatehealth

The Sun Also Helps You Hear

Created: 02/08/12 by Changemakers Blogger

Editor's note: This article was written by Vanuza Ramos, contributing journalist for Ashoka Changemakers®.

A simple battery for a hearing aid costs four reais and lasts about seven days; the device itself costs 3,000 reais (about U.S. $1,750). It may seem a small price compared to the great impact these products have in the life of a deaf person, but in developing countries like Brazil, these costs ​​exclude millions of people who are hearing impaired. 

However, a major shift is underway: the social entrepreneur Howard Weinstein has developed a low-cost technology to produce solar-powered hearing aids, along with a manufacturing process that involves training and employing people with disabilities.

Save the Date! Join @Changemakers for a #SocEntChat about Empathy!

Created: 02/08/12 by John Converse Townsend

February 14th is a day the world beams with love – and what better way to capture that love, by cultivating empathy in ourselves and in our communities?

Join us, the 1440 Foundation, experts and innovators between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. EST on Valentine’s Day for a conversation about empathy: its power, its impact, and its future.  

This is your chance to share your thoughts, ideas, challenges, and perspectives—and to connect with innovators and thought-leaders!

startempathy, empathy

Five Tips for Creating Learning Spaces that Lead to Change

Created: 02/08/12 by Changemakers Blogger

When Vishal Talreja started Dream a Dream with friends in 1999, he was armed more with passion than experience in education or development. But after a transformative and boundary-shattering experience working with HIV-positive children in India’s shelter homes, Talreja felt the very real need to put his empathy into sustained action.

startempathy, empathy

Q&A with James Waruiru, Community Health Activist

Created: 02/07/12 by John Converse Townsend

Changemakers is changing. Through the new Changeshops platform, we now offer improved ways to help build the world of social good. Changeshops users will be able to tell the online community what they need to grow their projects; search for collaborators, innovators, and competitions in the field; and access funding opportunities for world-changing ideas.

The Changeshops community is growing each day; to get a preview of what might be in store, Changemakers is catching up with a few of the platform’s top users.

changeshops, growchange, open growth

Q&A with Idit Harel Caperton, Education Entrepreneur

Created: 02/06/12 by John Converse Townsend

Changemakers is changing. Through the new Changeshops platform, we now offer improved ways to help build the world of social good. Changeshops users will be able to tell the online community what they need to grow their projects; search for collaborators, innovators, and competitions in the field; and access funding opportunities for world-changing ideas.

The Changeshops community is growing each day; to get a preview of what might be in store, Changemakers is catching up with a few of the platform’s top users.

Our first interview is with Dr. Idit Harel Caperton, president and founder of the World Wide Workshop, the New York-based foundation that is powering ideas for global learning and leadership in the 21st century. Caperton’s Globaloria project is the world’s first and largest social learning network where students develop the digital citizenship skills the global economy demands. Globaloria helps both youth and educators learn to participate as leaders of change in the global knowledge economy.

Caperton sat down to talk with Changemakers about the organization’s early success with Changeshops.

changeshops, open growth

Ben & Jerry’s Scoops Up New Ideas on Changemakers.com

Created: 02/03/12 by John Converse Townsend

What happens when you blend Ben & Jerry’s environmentally-friendly business model with Ashoka Changemakers’ dynamic platform for innovation? You get an international competition sure to delight young entrepreneurs throughout Europe.

#innovatehealth Interview Series: Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

Created: 02/01/12 by Evagelia Emily Tavoulareas

As we continue to explore reverse innovation in health and health care, we talked with Donika Dimovska and Rose Reis at the Center for Health Market Innovations about their new report, Highlights: 2011. The report offers insights into market-based health programs, including:

  • Five health models emerging around the world during the past decade.
  • Six ways enterprises, NGOs, and others can mobilize private providers to deliver better care through franchising, high-volume specialty hospitals, and other commercial models.
  • Five approaches to expand access and give purchasing power to the poor, including government insurance programs, contracting with the private sector, and mHealth savings.
  • An analysis of how information technology can be effectively utilized in health care, presenting six key reasons why technology can improve access, quality, and efficiency.
  • Clear, quantifiable ways to report program performance in a simple and transparent way.
  • How to connect to CHMI hubs in 16 countries around the world.

Listen to this conversation about reverse innovation, and some of the highlights of this new report.

health; health care; innovate health; innovatehealth