Brilliant … Open Source Ecology. The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) is a modular, DIY, low-cost, high-performance platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a small, sustainable civilization with modern comforts.
October 31, 2011
Productivity Future Vision. As a backdrop to thinking about scenarios – very interesting. Thanks for the video team that put this together. So technology here is ‘enabling’. Watch this and then see if you get he same feeling I got – why is everyone smiling and smug – like this is some new… [Read more…]
August 31, 2011
Current global practices in service design use a mix of methods added on to conventional system design practices (Manzini, Vezzoli et al. 2001; Morelli 2002; Stickdorn and Schneider 2011). These new tools and methods are in the main drawn from contemporary software development practices in the field of interaction design (Manzini 2009). By becoming significantly… [Read more…]
August 31, 2011
Service provision for rural poor is a unique field characterized by neglect and poor performance of public services (Sainath 1992; Louis 2007). Approaches to the poor and marginalized in design have been characterized by a discourse of social engagement and social entrepreneurship (Jegou and Manzini 2008). While a focus upon the rural poor (Papanek 1985)… [Read more…]
August 31, 2011
Historically, a greater focus upon technology has suppressed the discourse of access (Candi 2007). In health care projects, service design has benefited the client, often a publicly owned organization (Cottam and Leadbeater 2004). Extending such a paradigm of practice, producer-side thinking, into disadvantaged communities often leads to unintended consequences such as the exploitation of rural-poor… [Read more…]
August 31, 2011
The current practice of service design fails when used to develop services for poor and marginalized communities. Service design is currently centered around urban and affluent contexts. Service design theory has evolved with a focus upon privileging expert discourses in a predominantly urban context (Shostack 1982; Normann 2000; Leadbeater and Cottam 2008) This form of… [Read more…]
August 31, 2011
I took this to Assam when on my field trip – as a cultural probe.
August 12, 2010
YouTube – BirthsMart, posted with vodpod
August 12, 2010
Earlier this year – we heard that midwifery was making a comeback. This story places midwifery under mainstream medical practice. Is this just power play – and doesnt it look like India? midwivesVictoria: Who’s the REAL health minister? “In the last month we have come to the conclusion that Nicola Roxon is not really Australia’s… [Read more…]
July 26, 2010
Maternal instincts Gold Coast News | goldcoast.com.au | Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia She had read that every second baby born to privately insured women in Queensland will be delivered via caesarean section. There was also anecdotal evidence. Friends who had gone private more often than not seemed to end up having c-sections. My wife didn’t… [Read more…]
July 3, 2010
From Karen Gripin’s blog: … my list of things that I believe do not work in reducing maternal mortality in hopes that such missteps are not repeated again. 1. Making it all about abortion 2. Looking for a magic bullet 3. Advocating for “low-cost” solutions only 4. Confounding addressing maternal health and child health issues… [Read more…]
June 9, 2010
There is a growing body of evidence that demonstrates the potential of mobile communications to radically improve healthcare services — even in some of the most remote and resource-poor environments. The key applications for mHealth (defined as the use of mobile communications for health services and information) in developing countries are: * Education and awareness… [Read more…]
May 10, 2010
At a time when Dispur is making tall claims of having brought about a sea change in the healthcare sector, senior doctors are preparing to retire early from government hospitals, citing poor job satisfaction and frustration in their careers. A slew of measures adopted by the Assam government to improve the state’s health scenario has… [Read more…]
April 30, 2010
Reporter Hanna Ingber Win will travel with boat clinics along the Brahmaputra River to visit remote villages that do not have electricity, toilets or roads, let alone health services. In Muslim island villages, families marry off their daughters as young as 12 years old, taking them out of school, isolating them from their support services… [Read more…]
April 30, 2010
During the three years since its formation, CommonHealth has implemented a wide range of activities to further its objectives. While maintaining maternal and newborn health and safe abortion as its focus, the activities undertaken within these themes have varied in response to the situation at hand. For example, activities around maternal health were mainly around… [Read more…]
April 29, 2010
The Visible Embryo is a visual guide through fetal development from fertilization through pregnancy to birth. As the most profound physiologic changes occur in the “first trimester” of pregnancy, these Carnegie stages are given prominence on the birth spiral. The shape and location of embryonic interal structures and how they relate and are connected to… [Read more…]
April 29, 2010
According to Women Deliver, a conference and initiative launched earlier this year to mark the 20th anniversary of the Safe Motherhood Initiative (PDF), maternal mortality is defined as “the death of a pregnant woman during her pregnancy or within 42 days of pregnancy termination.” And there has been very little decline in the rate of… [Read more…]
April 28, 2010
The 108 services were launched in Assam with a fleet of 20 ambulances on November 6, 2008 following an agreement between the GVK EMRI and the Assam Government on July 8, 2008. At present, 280 GVK EMRI ambulances cover various districts of the State. The EMT pilots have demanded that their jobs be made permanent… [Read more…]
April 28, 2010
Those who have been crying foul against various state governments patronising the ‘108’ EMRI ambulance service have now lodged a fresh police complaint alleging theft of public money by the Rajus through EMRI. The ‘108’ ambulance service has curiously been patronised by 12 state governments across the country, with eight handpicking it without even floating… [Read more…]
April 28, 2010
Innovative initiatives in the health sector were appreciated. These include boat clinics in riverine areas, 108 ambulance services, private-public-partnerships with the tea gardens for providing health services in the gardens, mobile clinics in inaccessible areas, evening OPDs, and the 2 new schemes – Mamoni for pregnant women and Majoni for the first 2 girl children… [Read more…]
April 28, 2010
New Winger Ambulance from Tata Motors is a single stretcher ambulance that offers extra safety, a smooth drive, and a ‘within budget’ price. It gives you the freedom to redesign the interiors, for your own Hospital-on-Wheels. And it comes in two variants – Flat Roof and High Roof. via Tata Winger Variants –Standard, Deluxe &… [Read more…]
April 24, 2010
May-June 2010, Notes re Alexandra Gartrel Background: I encountered the problem – then communicated to me as PPH and began working upon finding out more in Late December 2009. In February 2010 I travelled to India and interviewed/ had conversations with key stakeholders (stakeholder organisations). I came back and continued my literature survey. I am… [Read more…]
April 24, 2010
Personally, I’m tired of reading the same old rants about policy and planning and what governments and donors should do to reduce maternal deaths. Other than more and better evaluation to find out how and why packages of interventions work, why not try something new like the COD Aid idea from my colleagues at CGD?… [Read more…]
April 24, 2010
Maternal Mortality Data and Measures 101 We only have ESTIMATES—yes, that’s what they are—because we don’t have the actual maternal death data from vital registration systems in most countries. Because many developing countries lack the capacity to accurately gather, analyze, disseminate and report data on a regular basis, we can’t express maternal mortality accurately either… [Read more…]
January 24, 2012
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