“Leveraging Digital Platforms for Health” via Clinton Foundation

Understanding the context of people’s actions is essential to leveraging digital platforms, Knight’s Vice President of Journalism and Media Innovation Michael Maness told participants gathered this week at the 2014 Clinton Health Matters Conference.

In the future, individuals and communities will be able to make decisions in real time, Maness said, enabled with a trove of personal data generated from wearable devices, Internet enabled-cars and apps. Ultimately, he predicts that this will “lead to better health and well-being.”

The conversation, which took place in La Quinta, Calif., was moderated by Chelsea Clinton, vice chair of the Clinton Foundation. Clinton challenged the panel to think broadly about how the rapid growth in technology and data might impact people’s health five years from now.

Other panelists in “Leveraging Digital Platforms to Promote Health” included: Travis Bogard, senior vice president, Jawbone; Dane Atkinson, CEO, SumAll; Peter Tippett, chief medical officer and vice president of Verizon Enterprise Solutions’ health IT practice; and Kathy Chang, a codeathon winner for an app to help people track their water consumption and founder, Moro.

Prior to the panel, Maness announced the winners of the Knight News Challenge: Health. The seven projects, which will receive more than $2.2 million from Knight Foundation, seek to harness the power of data and information for the health of communities. The theme for the next Knight News Challenge will be announced in March.

The conference, which brought together hundreds of business, technology and philanthropy leaders, focused  on activating health and wellness in every generation.

By Elizabeth R. Miller, communications associate at Knight Foundation

Related: “Positive solutions to local health problems” by Andy Krackov on KnightBlog.org.