Theme for 2010-2011 Seminars
For Spring 2010, the University Seminar in New Media Teaching and Learning will engage in a dialogue with Columbia stakeholders and external experts working on the intersections of global health and technology in an effort to develop a strategy for bringing Columbia's digital educational resources and energies to this emerging and important area.
Healthcare, according to the prognostications such as The Fourth Paradigm, is headed to a point of "singularity," wherein "the translation from medical knowledge discovery to widespread medical practice becomes nearly instantaneous." This new immediacy in healthcare will happen through an advanced harnessing of the power of digital communications technologies that we can glimpse and anticipate but not fully execute. An old logic would assume that it will happen in more developed countries first. Yet, since this transformation is not a matter of new bricks and mortar, but rather an outgrowth of the global power of networked communities, it becomes possible that its impact in the underdeveloped world will keep pace with the industrialized countries. Early indicators suggest that less developed regions of the globe, out of need and necessity, will emerge as unique corridors of innovation.
The innovation in treatment and basic research underlying these advances has been highly funded and flourishes worldwide, but bridging the gap between successful innovations and their universal dissemination remains a challenge as does developing the necessary skill sets and judgments to operate seamlessly between the constantly changing fields of health and technology. Organizations do not know where to look, whom to hire, and how to evaluate emerging opportunities for adopting new technologies now being deployed in often disparate and siloed areas.
Over the next several months, we will explore the intersections of global health and technology in an effort to find opportunities for strategic initiatives and partnerships and to develop the internal learning and professional development necessary to become leaders in this emerging field of practice.
