Conferences and symposiums Managing Innovation for Sustainable Health: rethinking innovation in the training of health care professionals

Context: Continuous learning for Healthcare professionals/Faculty.

Moderator

• Natalie Jellinek

Participants

• Karin Båge
• Charles Batte
• Linn Tomasdotter
• Freddy Bangalesa
• Mohammed Alasow
• Rawlance Ndejjo
• Tobias Alfvén
• Cynthia Mugabi

Form

Workshop, 2 h.

Background

There is great urgency for action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, especially in fragile settings. While these settings face acute yet complex challenges ranging from climate crisis to violence and extreme poverty, the public sector may be limited in its capacity to address these appropriately, with devastating effects on the health of people, communities, and environment now as well as in the future. Due to their complexity and urgency, the challenges to sustainable health require professionals that are trained in innovation for evidence-based action through multisectoral collaborations.

Innovation is however mostly understood as a) taking place mainly outside of the formal system, with the aim to disrupt and change systems, but from the outside; and b) to be about technology or digitization of services. In the era of the SDGs, it is necessary to rethink the possibilities of innovation and how innovation can be integrated in education.

Can the energy, methods and aims of innovation be harnessed within formal systems, such as the public sector? If so, what do professionals, in particular those working for sustainable health, need to become innovators within their organisations in ways that may or may not include technology?

In 2020, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and Makerere University, Uganda, developed the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health (CESH), under which a new partnership was established with Benadir University, Somalia, Kinshasa School of Public Health, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the social innovation company Tinkr based in Norway to develop training on innovation for sustainable health.

The aim of “Managing Innovation for Sustainable Health” (MISH) is to strengthen the capacity to contribute to achieving sustainable health through innovation in the public sector. It targets managers in Somalia, DRC and Uganda from the public and private sector, academia, and civil society. While most of the training has taken place online, participants and trainers are able to meet once in person during the regional study trip in Kampala, Uganda. This programme has trained around 50 managers in health sector in Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

Learning outcomes and target group

Come and listen and ask questions to the designers, teachers and alumni behind the capacity development programme Managing Innovation for Sustainable Health. The aim of this workshop is to share examples of how innovation can be integrated into higher education training, as well as to inspire university teaching staff to rethink their own methods in higher education.

We want to engage with a wide range of audiences, and welcome students, university teachers, educational developers, university administration and management. As this workshop focuses on continuous professional development courses, we particularly welcome professionals involved in this kind of education.

Workshop method

In this session, representatives, including alumni, from the programme will discuss lessons learned from delivering and participating in this online, international training programme on innovation for sustainable health. This discussion will take the format of a moderated interview/panel discussion. Before starting the moderated pandel discussion, we will interact with the audience by asking them questions to guage their pre-existing knowledge, experience and perspectives on the topic of the session.

This will hopefully inform the direction of the conversation of the panel. After the moderated session, we will open up for questions or comments from the audience.