It is 11am on November 18 2012
And apologies for missing out on last week’s blog. Hope
all of you had a great week and those of you who celebrate Diwali had a joyous
celebration.
Can we consider community radio as a great innovation
in the context of universal healthcare? Most of us would not think so, as radio
has been around long enough and a great number of government-sponsored social
welfare programs have used the medium to communicate. And some healthcare
professionals (especially clinical physicians) have strong opinions on what all
can go wrong with the use of this medium. And yet, I was excited by a
presentation made by a catholic priest who spoke at a healthcare conference on
why he strongly believes that the community radio station that he runs in a
Tier 3 city in India has been as much of an innovation as tele-medicine, and
perhaps even more as there is a strong participation of the most-important
stakeholder – the patient! The moot point is that when one defines innovation
as a creative approach to deliver value to stakeholders through sustainable
ways (whether one uses technology or not), then the priest does have a case
that needs immense appreciation. To me, the excitement is not just in the
Quilon community radio case, but in how the model can be replicated in the next
500 communities across India. What innovations will be required to get a buy-in
from government, clinical physicians and last-mile health workers to adopt and
adapt such successes?
The loss of life and property in Gaza strip which
continues to be a main part of media coverage of incidents in Israel and
Palestine, leave me to wonder as to whether politics and centralized-governance
could have been the worst innovations in human existence. Is there still a
scope for lateral thinking to provide long-lasting peace for this region? Am I
right in thinking that the United Nations has failed in its duty to manage
peace in this region and is it time for this body to acknowledge its failure
and use a threat of an economic embargo of this region in 3 years time unless
the leaders of Israel and Palestine agree to, and complete implementation of a
political settlement of all disputes that can be monitored by the world body.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend and a great week ahead.
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