On Thursday 15th May, Farah Jawitz, Richard Burman and Eldi van Loggerenberg, medical students and unapologetic optimists, launched a student-led movement with the aim to ignite student participation in healthcare innovation. The project is an extension of Inclusive Healthcare Innovation, a joint-initiative of the UCT Graduate School of Business’ Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the UCT Faculty of Health Sciences.

Despite the cold and rain, delegates gathered to hear UCT medical graduate and Director of the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Dr Francois Bonnici, speak about how innovation can transform healthcare.

Overall 80 students and professionals across all faculties at UCT filled the Graduate School of Business’s Solution Space, a recently opened innovation and entrepreneurship hub. Dr Max Price (VC) attended in support of this student movement. Throughout the evening, the participants brewed an air of possibility and hope. Playful elements were incorporated in order to facilitate creativity and participants were asked to suspend disbelief and reimagine a different healthcare reality.

Dr Bonnici painted a sobering picture of current problems within the health sector, but offered a strong vision of the potential for innovation in healthcare delivery, sprinkled with insights from his personal journey of activism - as a long-haired community service doctor, implementing Kangaroo Mother Care across South Africa and who completed his MBA at Oxford and became a fellow of the World Economic Forum. He emphasized that the buzz word ‘innovation’ is not a magic bullet, but rather one useful tool among many.

It was clear that solutions should develop across spheres such as service delivery, technology, financial models, medical management, infrastructure and relational spaces. During the evening, themes emerged such as the importance of inclusivity, effectiveness, affordability, co-creation, human-centred design, and ground-up transformation. 

The project coordinators believe that one area of potential for co-creation and ‘ground up’ thinking is through student engagement. Their aim is that iHI > Powered by Students will foster critical thinking around issues in healthcare, and allow students to engage with others from different areas of expertise.

From left to right: Farah Jawitz, Richard Burman, Eldi Van Loggerenberg, Dr Lindi Van Niekerk and Dr Francois Bonnici 

Going forward

iHI> Powered by Students will host activities that serve as a meeting point for students and professionals from various departments to explore and be exposed to healthcare innovation. These activities will include:

• A speaker series
• Workshops
• An online health innovation platform
• Electives and opportunities within current projects in health innovation

For more information 

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