HealthManagement, Volume 18 - Issue 6, 2018

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#WHIS connects people and communities.


World Health Innovation Summit (#WHIS) connects people and communities to improve their health and wellbeing (salutogenesis approach) while creating and sharing opportunities.

Technology is an enabler and now we have the means to share knowledge worldwide in an instant. We can use these means to support people’s health and wellbeing while generating value.

This brings opportunities and the World Health Innovation Summit (WHIS) platform can not only improve people’s health and wellbeing but also deliver new meaningful jobs.

Why?


Three years ago I started a social enterprise World Health Innovation Summit in Carlisle, Cumbria—the initial idea was to support local National Health Service (NHS) and social care services with recruitment and retention.

The World Health Innovation Summit is not just a conference or a meeting. It is about people coming together to support each other through a salutogenic approach to health and wellbeing, to network on a continuous basis. By supporting our communities, sharing knowledge, inspiring and innovating we as individuals and as a community benefit.

How?

By bringing patients, clinicians, managers, voluntary sector, education and businesses together to exchange knowledge, inspire and innovate together we all learn and our health service will benefit.

Health touches every sector: education, transport, food and agriculture, housing, waste, energy, industry, urbanisation, water, radiation, nutrition (WHO).

In order to find solutions we need inspiration and innovation. WHIS is about each and every one of us helping to support our health services. In order to do that we need a platform for people to contribute and meet to share their knowledge. The World Health Innovation Summit (Federation) provides that platform to do this in a consolidated structured process and innovate solutions.

The World Health Organization’s determinants of health are:

  • the social and economic environment
  • the physical environment, and
  • the person’s individual characteristics and behaviours

5 Pillars – WHISKids, WHISatwork,WHISSeniors, WHISGreen, WHISTech


We have supporting programmes running alongside the summits such as WHISKids (Health & Wellness for the next generation) and WHISatwork (Stress management within the workplace), WHISSeniors (Elderly care to improve quality of life), WHISGreen (Energy, waste, water) and WHISTech (WHISInspire). All programmes support our communities while looking for solutions to ease pressure from our health and social care services (Prevention).

5 Goals


  1. Deliver the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  2. Restore the balance to the environment
  3. Create equal opportunities
  4. Improve people’s health and wellbeing
  5. Support the most vulnerable

Outcomes

Outcomes for WHISKids activities


  • Outputs = 2000 young people + parents/staff reached so far across Cumbria
  • Key outcomes = Improved emotional wellbeing and resilience in young people
  • Indicative social return on investment*
  • Cautious calculation = £1: £7.50

Key outcomes from summits were decreased isolation and improved motivation amongst healthcare, social care and community-based professionals.

  • 67% said “I have improved my professional network”
  • 63% said “I have better access to new and innovative ideas through WHIS”
  • 53% said “I have a more positive professional outlook”
  • 52% said “I have improved my general professional knowledge base”
  • 48% said “I feel less isolated professionally”
  • Indicative Social Return on Investment*
  • Cautious calculation = £1: £36



Our prototyping is complete. We now have opportunities to scale WHIS right across the world. We’re speaking to local authorities and have started to train facilitators to deliver our WHIS programmes around the world. We’re generating value and sharing it so we all benefit.

Opportunity knocks!


Knowledge transfer across all sectors to improve our health and wellbeing will benefit us all:

  • We can improve our population’s health and wellbeing: WHISKids, Atwork, Seniors etc.
  • Restore the balance to the environment: WHISGreen (energy, waste, water)
  • Develop a network of communities to support solution-focused innovation for health and social care worldwide
  • Bring social capital and intellectual capital together to tackle challenges we face and support solutions
  • Access to all market sectors worldwide
  • Deliver new purposeful jobs that are flexible and agile in line with the future of work through the WHIS platform
  • Support governments and local authorities improve our populations’ health and wellbeing while creating new opportunities for meaningful and regenerative growth
  • Support the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals



The World Health Innovation Summit team is committed to collaborating so our communities benefit. Our business model ensures our events and activities are accessible while providing opportunities through the WHIS Federation (local community networks with central support that have independence with internal affairs (#togetherweinspire).

We bring in revenue from community support, partnerships, sponsorships, digital sales, advisory services and a number of other commercial activities, which means we can return money back into our local communities. Excess funding after our costs will go to community projects.

We have held successful events in Carlisle, Manchester, Nottingham, Fylde Coast, Birmingham, Liverpool (UK) and around the world (Greece, Thailand, Philippines) to share knowledge and improve healthcare for all.

We have community ambassadors and we are delighted to be working with such inspiring individuals who work diligently within their communities.

Our motto is “Together, We Inspire” and by working together we will inspire and deliver better healthcare. Our goals and vision support the 17 sustainable development goals as set by the United Nations (un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals).

We have partnered with the United Nations Global Index Institute to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (#SDGs #GlobalGoals #UNGSII) and Globethics (Ethics in Higher Education).

Key Points


  • Technology is an enabler and now we can use these means to support people’s health and wellbeing while generating value
  • By supporting our communities, sharing knowledge, inspiring and innovating we as individuals and as a community benefit
  • WHIS is about each and every one of us helping to support our health services
  • “Together, We Inspire” — by working together we will inspire and deliver better healthcare

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