By ANDRE BLACKMAN

So I just got back from a very informative & interactive event
where I learned about the application of 
mobile technologies in
creating social change. It’s here at this meeting of the
socially-conscious minds and the focus of impact creating technology,
that I began thinking about the real ways in which cutting edge tools
are being used in the public health world.Let’s face it, we’re living in the year 2009 and whether you are a young kid or much older,
technology has been integrated into our lives – both for work and play.
Several industries and disciplines have been traditionally linked with
technology (e.g. science, engineering) however in recent years with the
advent of  the Internet and social media, fields such as PR/marketing and education have latched onto emerging technologies and have been making quite a bit of use of them – making things better.

How are they making things better you ask? Well, they are doing a couple things:

• Communicating with their target audiences
• Informing professionals in their field
• Developing new tools for their industry
• Being open to the changing times and adapting

Among those in the list, I highlighted the last one for a reason –
especially in the health space. Of course there is going to be a
learning curve for these technologies, a diffusion of innovation.
Brochures, fliers and booklets are still great but they are not the
only end communication tool anymore (and their effectiveness is
waning). In these recent years where emerging technologies have been
more and more useful, we’ve seen our share of public health disasters
and problems that have been begging for a solution. One event
that has been forever inked on the minds of many Americans is the
crisis of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. A tragedy of epic
proportions that quickly turned into a public health nightmare on a number of levels.
The question here is, of all the technology that we had then and have
now, could things have turned out better? Well when Hurricane Gustav
came onto the scene, the online world was ready to make use – Andy
Carvin of PBS made sure that happened with his Hurricane Information Center.

It is an absolute must to make sure that public health professionals
are privy to what’s going on here. I sincerely do not want this field
to be at the tail end of the Digital Revolution with so much at stake
and so much potential. From disaster response to online prevention campaigns using social media to gathering global support to end poverty
– new technologies are here and there are limitless possibilities…and
solutions. And don’t think that since you aren’t a maverick at using
some sort of software that you can be counted out. The beauty of this
new age of digital empowerment lies not in the technology or the tools,
but in the people who are rallied around using them for great purposes.

THAT is why technology is no longer just an option for this field –
there are people who want to see it used for impact and the people who
it WILL impact are looking to us to see how we do it.