• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Susannah Fox

I help people navigate health and technology.

  • Home
  • Writing
    • greatest hits
    • beauty and wonder
    • demographics
    • featured commenters
    • health data
    • key people
    • peer-to-peer health care
    • positive patterns
    • public Q&A
    • trends & principles
  • Research
    • How Young People Use Digital Media to Manage Their Health
    • Digital Health Practices Among Teens and Young Adults: Key Findings
    • Fact sheet: teens and young adults, social media, online health resources
    • Fact sheet: differences between young women and young men in their use of social media, online health resources
    • Pew Research: Americans’ Data Worries
  • About me
    • Now
    • Curriculum vitae
  • Upcoming events

Invent Health

Invent Health

We must give people access to the data, information, and tools they need to solve their own problems.

The Maker movement is an example of a group of people who embody this idea. They modify and improve the world around them. They look at a problem and not only say, “I am going to fix that,” but “my community is going to fix that.” The Maker movement is about a return to craft, but upgraded thanks to tools like 3-D printers.

Imagine what would happen if MacGyver had access to a maker space or fab lab. Imagine what will happen as low-cost manufacturing tools allow people experiencing health-related problems to prototype and test solutions.

I see a parallel between the e-patient movement and the Maker movement. I think what happened with the democratization of access to information and data is going to be mirrored in the democratization of design and manufacturing tools.

We know that to untangle and improve our health care system we are going to need all the ingenuity and help we can get. Let’s do what we can to put tools into people’s hands. Let’s build people’s confidence about prototyping and testing ideas. Let’s see what people do when we give them access to their own data.

I’m collecting examples of medical and assistive device innovation inspired by the Maker movement and by new capabilities in manufacturing, design, engineering, and funding. Please let me know if you see one that’s not yet on my list — tag me and #InventHealth on Twitter or email me at susannahRfox at gmail.com (note the middle initial R).

For more information, check out the posts I’ve published on this blog and on Medium:

  • Pandemic problem-solving
  • Celebrating invention and innovation
  • Flashback: Announcing the Invent Health Initiative
  • MacGyvering home health care
  • Nurses in the innovation spotlight
  • DIY innovation in the hospital
  • Invent Health: A jolt of inspiration for health care
  • Invent Health: National Week of Making
  • Invent Health: To infinity and beyond
  • Invent Health: Hardware innovations hard at work
  • Invent Health: Empowering inventors to create tools for better living, clinical care
  • Quantified Self Public Health (product design)
  • Hack needed: Tiny pills, trembling hands
  • 3 home health care hacks
  • Hacking home health care

Featured image: “Make Things” – a design axiom by GoInvo.

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)

Before Footer

Don't miss a post

Enter your email address and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent Comments

  • Susannah Fox on A survey about clinical trial support groups: “Hi Diane, here is one article I found about Tirzepatide — a drug that’s in the headlines these days since…” Mar 9, 10:37
  • Diane on A survey about clinical trial support groups: “I’d love to hear about clinical trials of the new weight-loss drugs believed to help people with diabetes and pre-diabetes” Mar 8, 12:15
  • Dave deBronkart on Lessons learned about hospice care: “I want to add some things I’ve learned in the years since you posted this. First, it should be noted…” Feb 20, 16:44

Footer

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Topics

  • Beauty and Wonder
  • Demographics
  • Key People
  • Participatory Research
  • Peer-to-Peer Health Care
  • Positive Patterns
  • Public Q&A
  • Trends and Principles

popular posts

  • The Walking Gallery in Bilbao
  • Hack needed: Tiny pills, trembling hands
  • Mystery solved. Again.
  • Peer health playbooks

Explore

Copyright Susannah Fox © 2023 · WordPress · Log in