It might be easy to skip over this blog post I saw about yet another conference, this one at Santa Clara University. Does the world really need another conference, or another blog post about a conference? In this case, it probably does.
Tag: health
The power of distribution: Fighting hookworm in Cambodia
Kids in the U.S. no longer contract hookworm, like they did 100 years ago, thanks to an integrated campaign of medication distribution, improved sanitary, and public education. Children at the time who were exposed to this integrated campaign were more likely to subsequently grow up more literate and affluent. (Read more about this campaign.) Hookworm...Continue reading
Public services for impoverished children: A lifetime of value
How many childcare programs have Nobel Laureate economists prove that their services continue to provide a large return on investment 20 years later? Freaknomics recently featured a paper co-authored by luminaries such as Paul Gertler, Professor of Economics at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, and Nobel Laureate James Heckman. The paper describes...Continue reading
Marketing can eradicate disease–without using medicine
This admittedly icky medical story is on the verge of a very happy ending. In 1986, an estimated 3.5 million people in 21 African and Asian countries were infected with guinea worm. The worm is a disgusting but smart parasite. Its larvae live in stagnant water sources. After people drink the stagnant water, the larvae...
Our Social Nature Impacts Our Genetic Inheritance
I’m not a scientist by training or profession, but I am fascinated by what science can tell us about our social nature. In the past few years, new discoveries and techniques in genetics and data mining have revealed new levels of our interdependence, levels that can impact our genetic inheritance in a single generation and...Continue reading
Marketing Against Hunger and Poverty: UN Millenium Development Goals
In June 2013, the United Nations announced the 38 countries had already reached their 2015 Millennium Development goal of reducing hunger in their nation by 50 percent. I let out a whoop when I saw this news. This is great progress for millions of people around the world. I think the Millennium Development project gets...
Thinking Outside the Baby Box
Recently I read a BBC article about Finnish baby boxes and thought the program was genius. It shows the power of using a marketing mindset, and a design approach, to solve a pressing social problem.