Towards the end of last year I offered to run a session on people/citizen-led digital health for the Health 2.0 Europe which took place in London. My suggestion came about because I spent much of 2014 encountering many amazing digital entrepreneurs, but when it came to conferences they were rarely to be seen on the podium or as sponsors or with stands. We know that digital tools and services have to be born out of user-centred design approaches if they’re going to stand a chance of success; but we also need people accessing services to be shaping the discussion at conferences and events too.

So back to Health 2.0… it took no time at all to pull together an amazing panel of people who had all developed digital tools and services out of their personal experience. The tracker session was full to the rafters and we had a lively and stimulating discussion as well as tons of interest in what our panel had to say.  This experience gave us an idea… why not shape an event entirely around the experiences and motivations of people who have done digital innovation from the ground up. Why not ask the question ‘how can the NHS unleash people-driven digital health and wellbeing?’ and see if we can collectively find answers to help shape the strategic direction of digital in health and social care and beyond.

We chose the word people because this is all about everyday people sorting out everyday problems that they have directly experienced. We chose the word driven because it is people in the driving seat and many are really really driven to make a difference. We chose health and wellbeing because we want to keep the conversation as broad and wide and inclusive as we can.

We chose an unconference format because we want the event to be hugely collaborative on the basis that we know everyone who attends will do so because they have knowledge and insights to share. There will be lightning (short) talks to stimulate conversation but this event isn’t about transmissive learning – it’s about getting stuck in, connecting and building knowledge together. We’ve asked participants to bring a small gift to share so we can enhance a sense of ownership and responsibility for what happens during the event and what we all get out of it. And lastly, we are going to put together a paper from the event that will probably be written up by me but will be collectively authored by everyone who participates on the day.

So those are a few thoughts from me about people-driven digital health and wellbeing. You can find details of the event here – it’s pretty much sold out but please do add your name to the waiting list if you’d like to take part.

I’m passing the baton next to [watch this space] who will share their take on people driven digital health and wellbeing.  If you’d like to comment or write your own post – please do! That way we can get the sharing and learning started before we meet up, plus you can influence the conversation even if you can’t make the event itself. Please use the hashtag #PdDigital15 if you share posts or chat about the event on Twitter.

Thank you for reading 🙂