Digital Health: Borrow from Developing Countries?
Can novel health applications in developing countries spark health innovation in the United States? Massive experimentation in mobile and interactive health is taking place overseas, often targeting poor populations in poor countries. Consider several current examples: 1) a smart card enabled health savings scheme for uninsured mothers-to-be; 2) a crowdsourcing application to identify medicine stockouts in real-time; and 3) a viral model for peer sharing audio health content using mobile phones and traditional social networks. These are services from just one country: Kenya. Worldwide, mobile and interactive innovations represent fundamental shifts in how we think about health and healthcare. These innovations are leapfrogging traditional models. What can we adapt to the US health system (and market) in the next 2-3 years?
Presenters
Jaspal Sandhu uses and studies design to drive public health innovation. He manages the health portfolio at the Gobee Group where he undertakes various projects at the intersection of technology and global health, including mHealth. He has worked in multiple ways to support mHealth in Africa, including engagements with the World Bank, Intel, and Microsoft. In addition to this African experience, he conducted dissertation research as a Fulbright scholar in Mongolia into the role of mobile technologies in supporting rural health services. He is a Lecturer of Community Health and Human Development in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley, he teaches a globally-unique, multidisciplinary, graduate-level course of his own design called "Designing Innovative Public Health Solutions", focused on systematic approaches to innovation. He holds his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and his MS and BS from MIT.
Sunday, March 11
