The COVID19 pandemic is forcing everyone to learn new skills on the fly. Clinicians are teaching each other how to hotwire a ventilator to serve more than one patient. People are 3D printing spare parts for medical equipment and learning how to sew protective masks. Parents are sharing strategies for convincing their teenagers to stay home – and […]
maker movement
Celebrating invention and innovation
We are going to need all the ingenuity and help we can get to untangle and improve health and health care. Everyone should have access to the data, information, and tools they need to solve problems. That includes access to each other – peer to peer. My hope is for people to look at a […]
Public Q&A: Empowering people in their relationships with clinicians
In the spirit of public Q&A, I’m sharing an intriguing question I received recently from a community colleague. Check out my answer and then add your ideas and suggestions in the comments below. Do you know of any particularly good or interesting services to empower patients in their relationships with doctors, especially ones which involve […]
If we give people access to the tools they need to solve problems, they will
One of my core beliefs is that if we give people access to the data, information, and tools they need to solve their own problems, they will. 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, […]
How to judge an innovation
Update: George Hacks is being held again this year, January 26-27, 2019. I’ll serve as a judge once again and I can’t wait to see what students come up with! George Hacks is a medical and assistive device hackathon happening this weekend in Washington, DC. The students organizing the event have done a stellar job recruiting […]
Thread by thread
I’m honoring the contributions of my community colleagues over the years by pulling out some of their best comments and quotes. Julia M. Brennan, in response to Textiles are technology (2015): The intersection of woven dyed hand made textiles and fast evolving technologies (high tech fabric production as well as IT communications) today is a […]
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