What I Need: A Healthcare General Contractor

JaneLaMdeP · Feb 3, 2010 · 12:37

innovation advisor health laughter GP

By Jane La Mantia de Pencier

It was just one of those things. My 11 year old was watching a show that might have been called How to Blow things UP! It’s a big favourite in this house. He and his brother get immense pleasure out of watching the destruction. I find when they are engaged in this pastime it’s a great opportunity to give them a kiss on the cheek.

Caring for the Future

alton · Jan 26, 2010 · 07:56

Health care has led to major improvements in health with major system consequences. More people benefiting from more care presents a challenge to sustainability. Potential low-cost answers to this challenge are reported here.

Healthcare Conversations - From the New York Times Health Blog

carlos · Dec 3, 2009 · 12:54

Redefining Patienthood

carlos · Nov 23, 2009 · 10:43

This is a 1-2 minute survey that explores the 'patient' and 'ePatient' definitions in the current health care system. Our goal is to croud-source the definition for these terms.

This is an anonymous survey and the answers/data visualization will be available to all respondents at the end of the survey. We do not foresee any risks from completing this survey.

What Patients Need, Want, and Expect (Via Twitter)

carlos · Nov 21, 2009 · 02:46

Innovation Cell Gratitude Survey

neil · Nov 16, 2009 · 07:10

The Innovation Cell in just 8 slides!

carlos · Nov 10, 2009 · 07:59

Mashable Open Web Awards

carlos · Nov 1, 2009 · 00:48

Mashable is encouraging a bit of self-promotion and we are going to play along. This year their Open Web Awards has a category for Best Non Profit Use of Social Media and we think we may fit their bill. What do you think?

"e-Harmony for Patients"

carlos · Oct 3, 2009 · 09:16

Global Accelerator Award

alton · Sep 19, 2009 · 07:10

Announcing the Global Accelerator Award. Winners are organizations or people who have helped put into action an idea that holds the promise of dramatically improving patient care anywhere in the world. The Accelerator Award is based on an Innovation Cell methodology that analyzes which organizations or people in healthcare have put an idea into action that has generated significant positive “buzz” or “chatter” on the World Wide Web.

Groupthink vs. Groupthank

JaneLaMdeP · Sep 18, 2009 · 06:30

By Jane La Mantia de Pencier

Biting the hand that feeds you is considered an unwise act, unless you work with the Health Strategy Innovation Cell. I think us “Cellies” like it, at least we like a little nibbling, and so I want to roll over a few thoughts on the topic of Healthcamp Toronto. If I disappear like Deng Xiaoping you’ll know why.

HealthCamp Toronto In Action

alton · Sep 17, 2009 · 11:39

healthcamp

Click through to see videos and the dynamism of the latest healthcamp -- Healthcamp Toronto -- making this offline and online movement the largest bottom-up, patient-led conference in the world. Healthcamp Toronto was hosted by IBM Canada, in partnership with the Health Strategy Innovation Cell and Longwoods Publishing.

Bring your ideas to HealthCamp

carlos · Sep 10, 2009 · 18:06

HealthCamp Toronto

carlos · Sep 8, 2009 · 08:22

Join us at HealthCamp Toronto on Sept. 16, 2009!

HealthCamp Toronto will use the “unconference” format to create a safe place for contrarians, free thinkers, change agents and idea entrepreneurs. It is the first healthcamp in Canada, modeled after the globally renowned healthcamp movement begun in San Francisco, Boston, and Philadelphia.

Power of "Buzz"

JaneLaMdeP · Aug 30, 2009 · 08:55

By Jane La Mantia de Pencier

The Health Strategy Innovation Cell founded The Global Accelerator Award. It's an award for creating buzz and chatter on the web. Why is there an award for chatter? Didn’t we get in trouble for this at school? What’s the value of buzz? I wondered. I didn't get it.

Then, a giant lever began to squeak in my loner inclined brain. I could tell there was a great and powerful idea attempting to bust the rust on my gears. A great force was pulling against my pompous singular stasis. I squeezed my eyes shut as if my sinuses might suddenly clear, and puffer fish me up into a new awareness. The pressure changed in my head. Pop. Pop. Stop! I resisted.

The Heidi Assumption

JaneLaMdeP · Aug 28, 2009 · 10:09

By Jane La Mantia de Pencier

The turtles don’t seem to mind that I’m sharing the rock with them here at the top of the French River in Ontario, Canada. Clearly I’m still enough so as not to disturb them, dumbstruck as I am, here in the reptile warming sun.

I guess I know how they feel covered over with a carapace. I’ve recognized in my thinking some assumptions, and what are assumptions if not a desensitizing exoskeleton? I’ve just read Richard B. Wright’s October.

Isle of Kos and the Idea of Hippocrates’ Four Humours

JaneLaMdeP · Aug 17, 2009 · 10:32

By Jane La Mantia de Pencier

My friends have been sailing off the island of Kos. I think that’s pretty wonderful and ponder what their days are like. Surely they awaken early, with the water lapping the edge of the boat, the sun shining into the portholes and streaming in a narrow beam down the slightly opened hatch. They hear the fishermen coming back with the catch, whistling and shouting as the day’s take is heaved, up, onto the stone docks. They’ll emerge, with hair still wound by the previous day’s wind, and look positively Ancient Greek.

Mind, Money, Momentum

JaneLaMdeP · Aug 5, 2009 · 07:44

By Jane La Mantia de Pencier

The year is 1782. Night after night, and years after that, William and Caroline Herschel worked at their telescopes. Many of their discoveries were a surprise to them. Some came from a studied and methodical mapping of the skies, but the revelations themselves were not willed. They came from a lifetime of dedication and the building of expertise. They came from uncertainty and curiosity.

Saying "Health" in Inuktitut

neil · Aug 4, 2009 · 06:46

By Neil Seeman

Inuktitut can help communicate important unifying concepts in healthcare that may elude us in English. I was reminded of the bonding power of Inuktitut by our new kisaut ("anchor" or "oneness") fellow, Jen McCabe Gorman. Inuktitut is a language of inclusiveness. English can be divisive. Inuktitut is an aggregating language - pronouns, verb tense, and emotional cadence get mixed together to form one block or phrase. And the language of health ought to be inclusionary.

Jane's Voice: Cancer - Our Collective Autobiography

JaneLaMdeP · Jul 27, 2009 · 12:13

Cancer: Our Collective Autobiography?

By Jane La Mantia de Pencier

There’s a book I’d been wanting to read for quite a while. I went to the bookstore to get it and picked it up. Then, I started wandering around and ended up buying a couple of books about beekeeping instead. Choices. Choices. Choices.

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman, I understand, was all the rage when it came out in 1978.

What is Our Voice?

The Innovation Cell’s Team will talk about your ideas, will issue innovation challenges, and will invite others to talk about the ideas they think can make change happen.