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The Ecology of Innovation: Part 2 – Language
Posted on October 2, 2015
Although Innovation is about producing value through doing something new or different than before, the concept is far from simple when applied in practice by individuals and institutions. This second in a series of articles on innovation ecology looks at the way we speak of innovation and how what we talk about new ideas and […]
The Power, Peril and Promise of Health Journalism
Posted on February 14, 2015 2 Comments
The Toronto Star, Canada’s most widely read newspaper known for its investigative reporting gifted anti-vaccination audiences armament by using poor science to point to a spurious connection between an HPV vaccine and illness. The issue points to journalism’s power to shape the discourse of health issues and it points to the power, promise and peril associated […]
Seeing the lights in research with our heads in the clouds
Posted on July 11, 2014 3 Comments
Some fields stagnate because they fail to take the bold steps into the unknown by taking chances and proposing new ideas because the research isn’t there to guide it while social innovation has a different twist on the problem: it has plenty of ideas, but little research to support those ideas. Unless the ideas and […]
The New Zombie
Posted on October 24, 2013 1 Comment
Information is everywhere (and if you live in cities, people might be everywhere, too) and yet the volume of information we see is overwhelmed by what we do not see. Zombies are among us like information and because of that information might be less attuned to what is going on around them. This has enormous consequences and most of it is not good.
Systems Thinking Perspectives on CQI and Public Health
Posted on September 23, 2013 3 Comments
Systems thinking involves taking account of where you stand, what you’re doing, and where the bounds of your influence and influences are. By learning how to think about systems, we are better able to design strategies to ensure that our engagements are producing the most beneficial results for our efforts and when combined with design […]
Systems and Design Thinking Go to the Ballpark
Posted on September 18, 2013 3 Comments
A recent trip to baseball’s legendary Fenway Park provided the ideal example of understanding systems and how they can create public health problems like obesity through structural means. Being aware of these systems, their boundaries, and their activities can help us better find the causes of individual activity by looking at what encourages behaviour not just what people do.
Design Space in Public Health
Posted on August 1, 2013 1 Comment
If design is everywhere humans are and shapes our interactions in the built environment, which dictates how we interact with the world around us should it not be considered important enough to be a part of public health? I recently picked up a copy of the architecturally-inspired Arcade Magazine because of its theme on Science, […]
Designing for Empathy and Health
Posted on July 29, 2013 2 Comments
When does common sense make little sense? How do we sense-make evidence when it seems to make little sense? The answers could lie in getting inside the heads of those we seek to influence and designing our communications for empathy and health. Evidence in public / health Last week there was a brief uproar in […]
Attack on Anti-vac – Toronto Public Health vs. Jenny McCarthy
Posted on July 25, 2013 2 Comments
Originally posted on Public Health and Social Media:
I wanted to keep quiet on this issue, being the pioneer and former voice of Toronto Public Health’s Twitter for 3 years…but I think in the spirit of reflection – let’s blog on! Cameron Norman explains the issue really well in his post ‘Public Health and Social…
Low-profile public health job could mean best candidates won’t apply
Posted on July 20, 2013
Originally posted on canada.com:
In the fall of 2009, Canadians were on edge about their health. The country was in the midst of a worldwide pandemic and people were succumbing to H1N1 by the dozens. Health officials begged those who were ill to stay home and thousands of people across the country spent hours…
