#switchpoint

SwitchPoint is where humanitarian innovation, technology, and global health collide. The meet ups are an opportunity to engage the local community, reconnect and network with SwitchPoint attendees and presenters, and do fun activities.

Here, at our last meet up, Maureen Corbett, IntraHealth’s vice president of programs, tests out the virtual reality (VR) games at North Carolina’s first VR arcade, Augmentality Labs.

VR is currently being used in teaching, training, rehabilitation, empathy generation, and many other fields and disciplines. While the games played at the event were primarily for entertainment (Space Pirates!), experiencing VR technology and its immersive capacity allows players to understand the power VR could have in bridging the gap between training and realities on the ground.

IntraHealth recognizes the power of VR for training public health and humanitarian aid workers and preparing them for the realities of disaster zones, war-torn countries, and health centers under attack, for example.  

Nola Paterni, IntraHealth’s development officer, is part of the team planning SwitchPoint meet ups.

“VR is interesting to me because it seems like it’s one of those rare technological advances that is progressing at the same rate that our global troubles are unfolding,” says Nola. “And, of course the hope is that the technology outpaces the global problems! So, if you get a chance to play a VR game, have fun and marvel at the technology, but think also about ways VR could be used in your industry or to help solve an issue you face. See you on the other side!”

Join us for our Robot Vs Human DJ Battle on December 12 at The Pinhook in Durham. And get your ticket to SwithPoint 2018 today!

Participants in The Village People microlab engaged in an immersive experience as they worked collectively to develop aspects of an ideal village. This lab  featured numerous speakers' innovations and involved groups of participants working together to solve challenges many communities face. 

SwitchPoint-goers brainstormed solutions to challenges in education, health care, sustainable energy, women’s empowerment and income generation, and access to water. 

Microlab leaders included Hawa Diallo of The Orange Foundation; Cheick Touré, Jeanne Tessougué, Mariam Zouboye, Demba Traoré, and Moctar Diallo of IntraHealth; Chef Pierre Thiam of Yolélé Foods; Neha Misra and Fatma Muzo of Solar Sister; Heidi Breeze-Harris and Kimberly Calkins of PRONTO International; and Fekadu Moreda of RTI.

In a SwitchPoint 2018 microlab called Community Health Workers in Action, these and other participants stepped into the role of a health system designer to take on the challenges faced by community health workers in Liberia, Tanzania, the United States, and Nepal. 

Together we brainstormed, analyzed, and shared solutions for how to better support and sustain the people who work to deliver health care in communities around the globe.

“You all grappled with some very real, not-so-hypothetical challenges that community health workers are facing around the world,” said SwitchPoint speaker Madeleine Ballard of the CHW Coalition.

Above: Nicholas Gordon of Last Mile Health (left) and SwitchPoint participant Tina Craven. Photos courtesy of Mallory Michalak.

Learn more about what happened at SwitchPoint 2018: 

SwitchPoint 2018: Day 1 

Led by Kevin Meehan, a Saxapahaw resident and local farmer, the cohort trekked by the riverside to reach the dam and took a peek inside at several large, noisy, heat-producing turbines that generate power—power that the local electricity utility purchases from the owners of the dam.

Outside the facility, Fekadu Moreda, a hydrologist at RTI International, spoke about some of the interesting ways scientists use hydrological models to manage water usage. He reminded the group that only about 1.2% of the earth’s water is usable for human use.

“Most of the earth’s water is oceans and sea water,” he said. “About 2.5% is freshwater, but much of that is unusable due in part to ground pollution and other factors.”  

Moreda focused on the hydrological model in Latin America, Hydrobit, as he and his colleagues are working to apply hydrology successfully in the low- and middle-income world.

“We want to build the capacity of the developing world stakeholders to use their own models and manage their own resources using Hydrobit,” he said.

From right, presenters Bobby Jefferson, Kafui Prebbie, Auson Kisanga, and  Salwa Bitar led a discussion on the merits and challenges of educating the workforce of today and tomorrow while riding a rapidly changing digital wave.

“Peer-to-peer learning groups are an old concept,” said Kisanga. “IntraHealth is creating virtual peer-to-peer learning platforms—a community of health workers using a closed user group that allows subscribers to call others in the group for free.”

When health professionals easily communicate using a free service, it promotes professional interaction and learning. 

“We’re exploring WhatsApp, Facebook, and Telegram as alternative technology platforms to create and support virtual professional peer-to-peer learning communities,” Kisanga said.  

Moving forward, the group recognized and grappled with the changing landscape for youth coming of age in the digital era.

As one participant put it, “Artificial intelligence will be available in 2025, and it will get to the point that this is the only way to consume content. People won’t Google anymore—they’ll want to talk to the machine. It must be deliberate and planned for.”

At IntraHealth International and the Frontline Health Workers Coalition, elevating the voices of health workers around the globe and giving them the reins to tell their stories is the lifeblood of our mission to advocate for greater and more strategic investment in their work. 

After all, health workers on the front lines of care know the ins and outs of our health systems best.

Among a bevy of amazing talks like that of Rosaura de Jesus late last month at SwitchPoint—IntraHealth’s annual humanitarian innovation, global health, and technology conference in Saxapahaw, North Carolina—were two talks that provide great insight for advocates heading this next week to the World Health Assembly in Geneva.

Find out more on the Frontline Health Workers Coalition blog.

Here are a few things I learned during my time at SwitchPoint: 

#1: To truly know your subjects, pass the mic.

The keynote speaker, Marco Werman, host of PRI’s The World, talked about the lessons he’s learned after decades in journalism. He recalled something the photojournalist Robert Capa said: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.”

For years, Werman said, he thought this meant physical closeness to your subject. Instead, he came to realize that it’s about being more involved in and with the person whose life you’re documenting. The closer you are, the better you know them, and thus, the more truthful you can be.

Passing the mic is about giving people the power to direct the conversation and share their own stories, rather than having that power lie completely with the person holding the camera, microphone, or pen.

Which leads to my second takeaway…

Read the rest of Rachel Healy’s takeaways on her original post over at Open Eye Creative. 

SwitchPoint is IntraHealth International’s annual conference about creativity, partnership, and action. It’s where humanitarian innovation, global health, and technology collide.

Our Dana Acciavatti (with the heart) joins other SwitchPoint 2017 participants in the Tech4Good microlab. They formed teams to role-play national health leaders facing the threat of TLD (Terminal Laughing Disease). Their task? Construct a health data and communications network to mobilize health workers to end it.

Each team had a certain number of “resources,” including paper shapes, strings, and note cards. The shapes represented open source information systems available for countries to freely use—like iHRIS (software for tracking and managing health workers) and CommCare (a mobile platform for data collection and behavior change communication). Note cards were the system level (community, regional, or national), and strings connected systems for sharing data. 

Participants used the resources to design an interoperable information system to stomp out TLD. But from the smiles on Dana’s and other participants’ faces, looks like some of them caught TLD in the process.

Every year, SwitchPoint’s guiding themes reflect the coming trends in technology, health, and global development. This year, participants will explore Tech4Good again, along with Secure and Universal Global Health, Responsible Communications and Advocacy, and more.

Don’t miss out! Get your tickets to IntraHealth International’s SwitchPoint 2018 conference now. It’s happening April 26-27. https://event.switchpointideas.com/Register