What has the Maker Movement got to do with public health? Quite a lot as it turns out, as I explore in the latest Risk Bites video. This in turn was inspired by being invited to talk at the inaugural We Make Health Fest in Ann Arbor.
Tinkerers
When I was a kid, I used to tinker around with stuff. I wanted to know how things worked, and how they could be pulled apart and made to work better (admittedly, I wasn’t very good at this!). I played around with the usual chemistry sets and electronics, and over time graduated to more complex projects. And when personal computers became more accessible, I quickly got into programming. If the maker movement had been a thing back in 1970’s Britain, I would have identified with it.
Maker culture
Today’s maker movement draws on this innate desire many of us have to create stuff. It goes hand in hand with hacking in the broadest sense of customizing your world to make it better. What make maker culture stand out beyond just tinkering is the massive advances we’ve experienced in access to really cool technologies, tools and techniques in recent years, together with the emergence of a highly connected and motivated global community around maker culture. Together these have transformed isolated inventiveness into a powerful grass roots movement for innovation and creativity.
The importance of this hasn’t gone unnoticed. Tim Bajarin recently write in Time Magazine
[the maker movement] has the potential to turn more and more people into makers instead of just consumers, and I know from history that when you give makers the right tools and inspiration, they have the potential to change the world.
Underscoring this, President Obama hosted the first White House Maker Faire in June. He even proclaimed June 18 as National Day of Making – stating “I am committed to helping Americans of all ages bring their ideas to life.”
And this is where the Maker Movement connects so well with public health.
Public health and the maker movement
We live in a world where many people still face substantial and often insurmountable risks to their health and well-being. A billion people around the world for instance still have no sanitation. And by none, I mean that they are forced to defecate out in the open, in front of others (if you have a couple of minutes, please visit opendefecation.org to learn more). Poor sanitation continues to exacerbate the spread of communicable diseases. But we are also facing a growing tide of non-communicable diseases – cardiovascular disease, diabetes, fatty liver disease, malnutrition and others (yes, malnutrition remains a major public health issue – even in developed economies). And our environment continues to impact our health, whether through indiscriminate disposal of the stuff we no longer want, the release of pollutants, or through broader trends like climate change.
These all represent massive challenges to protecting and improving health and well being within society. But they are all challenges that anyone with imagination can help address. And this is where maker culture and the maker movement are so exciting. They are empowering individuals to “hack” their world and make it a better place, and to make a significant contribution to their lives and the health and well-being of those around them.
It’s one of the most compelling reasons (in my admittedly biased opinion) for getting into public health!
Challenges ripe for the maker-picking
There are many public health challenges that are crying out for innovative solutions. And a lot of these are ripe for creative individuals to spot fixes that have so far eluded professionals. In the latest Risk Bites video I list just five challenges that are worthy of attention from makers:
Saving lives by getting creative about preventing poop-borne diseases;
Exploring new ways to get people off their buts and moving around;
Helping people eat smart, by making it easier for them to get access to healthy food;
Giving people more control over the pollution they breathe, using smart phones, smart sensors to smart communication; And
Getting imaginative about ways to slow the spread of antimicrobial resistant bacteria.
These and other challenges lend themselves particularly well to individual and community inventiveness. Of course, it’s not that easy to make a difference on your own – no matter how great your idea is. But an increasing number of professionals in areas like design, innovation and manufacturing are recognizing the power of teaming up with makers to help transform creative ideas into reality. And this includes health professionals who are recognizing that people who’s lives are impacted by disease and ill health sometimes have the most creative insights into addressing them.
Making “Health”
This convergence between the maker movement and health is the stimulus behind the inaugural University of Michigan We Make Health Fest on August 16. The fest is focused specifically on the convergence between creative individuals, designers, technical experts and health professionals – and the creativity and innovation anyone from kids upward can bring to finding solutions to health challenges.
This is just the beginning though. The magnitude of public health challenges being faced globally is matched only by the potential for individuals and communities to come together and help solve them. And this is where the maker movement is empowering a generation to work with others to not only make gadgets, but also “make health”.
In other words the maker movement is not only about a renaissance in manufacturing envisioned by President Obama – it’s about making a healthier world.