Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…

Come with me, And you’ll be in a world of pure imagination.
Take a look and you’ll see into your imagination.
We’ll begin, with a spin, traveling in the world of my creation.
What we’ll see will defy explanation.
If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it.
Anything you want to, do it.

Want to change the world?
There’s nothing to it.

Willy Wonka

I am keen to create a local community of Digital Health Pioneers, as well as reaching as far and wide across the internet. First I want to focus on my vision for a local community. I have been lucky enough to engage with the GitHub Campus Experts program. For you that don’t know, the GitHub Campus Experts program provides training to an individual, so they can help improve the developer community at a University or College.

The program allowed me to focus my mind of the Community I want to help develop. My hope is to find people locally who really align with my vision of collaboration and culture of innovation.

Community Definition

A group of like-minded, inventive and collaborative individuals from the area of Morecambe Bay in the Northwest of England. A community drawn together by a common goal, to create a culture that embraces innovation and invention within digital healthcare, to improve the health of the area through the use of digital technologies.

The group is inclusive, with members from many disciplines. Bringing together:

• the bright minds of the University of Lancaster - Students of Computer Science, Medicine, Social Science, Law, Management,
• experts in the fields of medicine - All members of the Healthcare team, including Doctors and Nurses, both in Hospital and in the Community
• experts of the the Morecambe Bay area - third sector organisations and, of course, patients.

This is a community which draws together all healthcare stakeholders to collaborate, co-create and revolutionise solutions to transform what we mean by health. It shares a common vision to create an environment that supports rapid development of solutions to be adopted locally.

Size

My hope would be to attract a core group of between 10-20 people who really understand the vision that we are trying to create when developing a culture of innovation and collaboration. I would hope that there would be a slightly more fluid aspect to the community as individuals come forwards with ideas or problems requiring a solution. Once the project is completed, the group could then chose to stay and involve themselves in other projects, or take their solution forwards and champion its integration.

Goals

Initially there are there main goals of the group.

• The first is to establish interest and grow the group.
• To develop the ethos and culture around collaboration and innovation. That collaborative, passionate group of individuals can create digital technology to the benefit of patients.
• To rapidly prototype innovative ideas, so that they may be tested locally and embedded if successful.

The initial premise of rapid prototyping is an 8 week window from presentation of an idea to the group, to presentation of a prototype. If not successful at the point, the idea is dropped, redesigned or a new idea takes its place.

Culture

The culture for the Community is one of inclusivity and actively strives for new members and new ideas. The hope is to create a community to act as a beacon, a core of innovation, that diffuses through the Healthcare community locally. And whilst some people may bring an idea that is developed and then move on, my hope is for a core of people that will always share the vision to create amazing Digital Health technology.

If this sounds like you, contact me and keep your eyes and ears open for upcoming events. If you are further a field and want to get involved, I also want to develop this. I would love to hear from you as well. Its time to think differently…