Andrea Boston

Announcing Ashoka Changemakers’ “Health Ideas” Week: A week-long discussion of nutrition’s impact on health

Editor’s note: This post was originally published on Ashoka Changemakers, and is republished with permission as part of NextBillion Health Care’s week-long collaboration on their Nutrients for All campaign.

When it comes to health and wellness, everything is connected. The soil that yields a nation’s staple crop is tied to the growth and development of its youngest citizens. The policies passed at the government level ultimately determine who can, and cannot, afford to seek lifesaving treatments.

Global access to health is one of the most critical needs of our time—one that requires game-changing ideas to help us rethink our connection to the environment, as well as to each other. It is a basic need that can make significant gains with just a little dose of ingenuity from key players including patients, farmers, health care providers, business leaders, and yes, even you.

That’s why Ashoka Changemakers is hosting “Health Ideas” week on NextBillion Health Care, to showcase three exciting new opportunities with support from some of the world’s leading health and health care innovators.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Ashoka’s Nutrients for All Movement have each developed unique engagement platforms to encourage robust conversation and to find the breakthrough initiatives that will transform deficient health care and nutrition systems around the world.

These opportunities target global health from three different perspectives—business, innovation, and nutrition—but each campaign contributes a necessary spoke in the wheel that will guide people and the planet toward total health and wellbeing.

Join us this week for two live online discussions:

1. Health Ideas Twitter Discussion (#SocEntChat) on March 19th, 10:30am-12pm EST

2. Nutrients for All “Health and Wellness” Google+ Hangout on March 21st, 11-11:45am EST

And don’t forget to check out all of the health opportunities that Changemakers offers:

Ashoka Nutrients for All

Transforming Health Systems: Game-Changing Business Models

Ashoka Changemakers and Boehringer Ingelheim teamed up for a second online competition that seeks innovative business models with the potential to dismantle traditional health care systems so that communities—in both emerging and established markets—are placed at the center of care. Winners will receive cash prizes totaling US$85,000 plus mentorship and pro bono consulting work from local BI thought leaders. The competition is currently accepting entries until April 10, 2013.

Submit your idea.

RWJF Open Ideas

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is kicking off a brand new initiative on ChangePulse specifically designed to grow the work of health innovators. RWJF Open is a new online space that gives emerging leaders a chance to connect directly with RWJF’s senior staff members to receive one-on-one feedback and support.

Whether your project is in its early stages of development, or you’re looking to push your business to the next stage of growth, this ongoing collaborative effort gives you access to an organization that’s committed to finding cutting-edge solutions in health care. All you have to do is build a changeshop to share your project with the RWJF team.

Get started.

Nutrients for All: Vitality in Soil, Food and People

How can we shift the focus of our current food systems so that nutrient-rich foods are grown, delivered, and consumed around the world? That’s the question being answered in Nutrients for All: Vitality in Soil, Food and People, a new online innovation community dedicated to prioritizing the nutrient value chain, making food processing and farming practices more beneficial to families and to the natural environment.

Nutrients for All is stirring up debate and new ideas from people across the agricultural, business, and information technology sectors to get the world thinking about a “Nutrient Economy” that will promote a more balanced and abundant nutrient system for all.

Discover how you can get involved, and stop by our weekly Google+ Hangout sessions to connect with experts and innovators working to transform global health.

Join the movement.

Categories
Agriculture, Health Care
Tags
nutrition, public health