public health

Better Systems Thinking

December 10, 2019December 10, 2019 Cameron D. Norman 444 Views 0 Comments Bob Williams, evaluation, public health, systems change, systems evaluation, systems thinking, tobacco control, toolkit

Systems thinking is essential for managing complexity – if done well. These guides for systems theory, practice, and evaluation can

complexity innovation social innovation

The Ecology of Innovation: Part 2 – Language

October 2, 2015October 2, 2015 Cameron D. Norman 260 Views cancer control, communication, health communication, health promotion, innovation, innovation ecology, knowledge exchange, knowledge integration, knowledge translation, mindfulness, organizational mindfulness, public health, research, sensemaking, social innovation

Although Innovation is about producing value through doing something new or different than before, the concept is far from simple

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The Power, Peril and Promise of Health Journalism

February 14, 2015 Cameron D. Norman 575 Views anti-vaccination, Ben Goldacre, CBC Radio, Gardasil HPV vaccine, health reporting, journalism, Julia Belluz, knowledge translation, media ecology, medical evidence, medicine, newspapers, public health, science, the fourth estate, The Guardian, Toronto Star, vaccines

The Toronto Star, Canada’s most widely read newspaper known for its investigative reporting gifted anti-vaccination audiences armament by using poor

eHealth innovation public health social innovation social media

Seeing the lights in research with our heads in the clouds

July 11, 2014 Cameron D. Norman 452 Views communications, complexity, eHealth, evaluation, medicine, public health, research, social innovation, social media

Some fields stagnate because they fail to take the bold steps into the unknown by taking chances and proposing new

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The New Zombie

October 24, 2013 Cameron D. Norman 276 Views CDC, Clay Shirky, complex systems, contemplative inquiry, design thinking, Facebook, John Bohannon, journalism, metacognition, mindfulness, mobile phones, organizational change, public health, research, resilience, science, social media, systems thinking, The Economist, tribes, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, zombie

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.

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Systems Thinking Perspectives on CQI and Public Health

September 23, 2013 Cameron D. Norman 425 Views CENSE Research + Design, complexity, design thinking, Ontario, organizations, path dependence, presentation, public health, quality improvement, systems thinking

Systems thinking involves taking account of where you stand, what you’re doing, and where the bounds of your influence and

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Systems and Design Thinking Go to the Ballpark

September 18, 2013September 19, 2013 Cameron D. Norman 171 Views architecture, baseball, Boston, Boston Red Sox, boundaries, design, design thinking, Fenway Park, obesity, psychology, public health, social determinants of health, systems thinking, Yoni Freedhoff

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.

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