Crowdsourcing and Health Care Reformation

Two terms I have encountered recently are “collective consciousness “  and crowdsourcing.  Collective consciousness has been around for some time, and now with social media it takes on a new power magnified almost infinitely as social media platforms integrate and share data.

A new form of venture capital has emerged as a result of the internet and social media, called ‘kick starter funding”  and “crowdsourcing’.  Thus far little of this has been applied to HIT, or healthcare in general. It could be very valuable for developing health resources in underfunded projects, away from conventional rules.

Enthusiasm seems to be the main stimulant rather than a financial return on investment.  There are many crowdsourcing projects which are available.  

There are many sources of information on how to crowdsource.^1,2,3    

How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

We Are Smarter Than Me: Crowdsourcing New Businesses

The Art of Community: Building the New Age of Participation (Theory in Practice)

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Crowdsourcing [Kindle Edition] This is readily available as a kindle sample and can be downloaded to the Kindle Cloud or smartphone or iPad reader for free.  This is also  true of some of the above titles.

Crowdsourcing is facilitated by the use of social media collaboration to collect a like minded group of people for a project.

In heath care it could be one of the following, as well as many additional ones

Cost effective mobile health applications to be developed by ‘indies’

Rural health development

Remote monitoring

Public Health Concerns

Health in the inner-city

Medical Device Funding

Crowdsourcing and/or Kickstarter funding is not necessarily a cash contribution, it can be things such as any ‘in kind’ legal services, accounting services, office space, utilities, office equipment, computers, printers, supplies, advertising, sponsoring speakers, educational materials, and whatever overhead is required.  The principals seeking funding detail what is needed, project management, and budgets, and also may contribute financially or with free services until such time as the business becomes self-sustaining.

This unusual form of starting an enterprise is popular in some circles, and may also find advantage in health care circles..

In some sense this mechanism is already in action for hospital foundation funding for new equipment, new hospital wings, education centers and more.  Even here social media, facebook pages, twitter, and Google plus could magnify those efforts.