What if we could use virtual reality technologies to teach empathy? Or use real-time electricity patterns to check on someone’s well-being and relieve caregiver stress? Lori Melichar, a director at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, highlights the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's efforts to seek ideas from unlikely sources and the cool collisions that result. Lori presented this talk at the Innovation Learning Network meeting in October 2015.

2. Are you a part of the maker movement?
Over the past decade, a large community has formed around using off-the-shelf materials and new, low-
cost technology – like 3-D printers and Arduinos – to innovate and build their own gadgets and devices.
This has become known as the maker movement.

3. As we all know, there are plenty of creative and curious people within health care. Bedside nurses, in
particular, are in a unique position to innovate. They often spot suboptimal technology and come up with
solutions to improve care for their patients. But too often their ideas remain scribbled on the back of an
envelope.

4. So, what if you combined the DIY spirit of the maker movement with the ingenuity of nurses? In 2013, my colleagues and I at the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation supported MIT's Little Devices Lab to launch MakerNurse, which provides tools and resources to enhance resourcefulness and innovation among
nurses.
So, what if you combined the DIY spirit of the maker movement with the ingenuity of nurses? In 2013, my
colleagues and I at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supported MIT's Little Devices Lab to launch
MakerNurse, which provides tools and resources to enhance resourcefulness and innovation among
nurses.

5. MakerNurse recently set up the nation’s makerspace for health care providers. John Sealy Hospital in
Galveston, Texas now has a space stocked with pliers, sewing needles, 3D printers, laser cutters and
other tools. One nurse has laser-cut bandages to custom fit her NICU patients. Another has built a shower
system specifically designed for burn victims.

6. At RWJF, we are working to build a Culture of Health. This means creating a society that gives every
person an equal opportunity to live the healthiest life they can—regardless of who they are or where they
live. To build this culture, we are collaborating with others to anticipate the future, take chances, and
consider new and unconventional approaches and perspectives.

7. We fund a variety of pioneering thinkers working in health and health care. We also look outside – at other
sectors – to identify emerging trends and solutions that we can apply to challenges in health. This work
has resulted in quite a few weird pairings and random collisions. I'd like to tell you about some of them
today.

8. What does oculus rift have to do with empathy? What if we could use virtual reality technology to build
social good? While others are looking at ways virtual reality can enhance our movie watching experience,
Stanford's Jeremy Bailenson is looking at the ways it can help improve people's lives and improve society.

9. Jeremy has studied the ways that virtual reality can help people prepare for earthquakes, conquer their
fear of heights, and even become more altruistic. We're working with Jeremy to explore the potential of
virtual reality to build empathy and to determine whether that empathy will last over time.

10. What if we combined the virtual role-playing found in video games with the challenging conversations
taking place in the doctor's office? Our grantee Kognito is building "virtual humans" to teach real humans
how to talk about difficult subjects. One simulation tries to help doctors improve communications with
patients so they can avoid over-prescribing antibiotics.

11. What do electricity companies and caregivers have in common? A health IT pioneer named Paul Tang
asked: what if we could look at real-time electricity use to monitor a family member's well-being?
Essentially, if your elderly mother doesn't make her morning coffee – if she doesn't use electricity with the
same pattern she usually does – could that be a signal that there is a problem?

12. So, we're working with Paul and the LinkAges program at Palo Alto Medical Foundation's Innovation
Center to test whether changes in the patterns of electricity use might be early warning signs that the
health of a senior is compromised. This could help caregivers intervene earlier, before there is a serious
problem, and it could also help relieve some stress for caregivers.

13. By putting simple, clear explanations of academic subjects in online videos, Khan Academy has reversed
the normal flow of instruction and “flipped the classroom.” We thought, why not Flip the Clinic the way
Khan has flipped the classroom?

14. We created Flip the Clinic, a project that aims to reinvent the encounter between patients and their
providers. Flip the Clinic is a community where patients and providers come together share and discuss
actionable ideas and practices to improve the clinic experience. Some of the ideas the community is
discussing include ways to shorten wait times and conversations about bringing back the house call.

15. We look across the country for opportunities to generate ideas and explorations. We are also looking
abroad at global innovations that could solve major challenges right here at home. The MASS Design
Group is building hospitals in Rwanda with the explicit goal of improving health. What if we took what
architects are learning about building hospitals in Rwanda and applied it to health care facilities in the US?

16. They're using natural ventilation to decrease the spread of infections and positioning beds towards
windows with views of nature to improve patient well-being. We've funded MASS Design Group to study
U.S. hospitals. They'll be recommending ways to improve the design of hospitals, based on their insights
from Rwanda, to produce better patient experiences and yield stronger health outcomes.

17. Beyond weird pairings and random collisions, we also look at how problems are solved in other fields.
Behavioral economists have been offering carrots to get people to save money for some time. We are
exploring how we can use principles of behavioral economics to help people make better decisions about
their health.

18. We've funded experiments across the country that have tested a variety of motivators for encouraging
healthy behavior. For example, one experiment found that by making healthy foods in a workplace
cafeteria more easily accessible and clearly labeling them as healthy, employees went with the healthier
choice—and stuck with those choices over time.

19. As you can see, my team and I are focused on finding and funding new approaches and ways of thinking
— including those that come from other fields, industries and countries. Ultimately, we need you to
challenge us, and to tell us where we should be going and what ideas have the most potential to transform
the way we think about health.

20. If you'd like to learn more about the ideas I've shared today, I hope you'll subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. The
Pioneering Ideas Podcast explores cutting-edge ideas with the potential to build a Culture of Health. Several of the
innovative thinkers I've talked about today have been featured on our podcast, so please do check it out.

21. If you have cutting-edge ideas that challenge assumptions, ask new questions and disrupt the status quo,
we’d love to hear them. Connect with me at pioneeringideas@rwjf.org or on Twitter at @lorimelichar.
Thank you.