Thursday, August 18, 2016

August 31 - Find Us at the Minnesota State Fair!

The MN Next System Project for Healthy Community Innovation

We're headed to the Minnesota State Fair to discover more about the next system of health from our community.

Find The MN Next System Project Community exhibit on August 31 from 4:30 - 6:30 at the U of M Central building.

The MN Next System Project Community and the School of Nursing collaborate to ask fair goers to imagine the future by asking, What is health? What does healthy community mean to you? This exhibit pilots data gathering and needs assessment from a wider community sampling. Collections will result in a short video, representing the voice of community to understand “next system” health innovations needed to support and nourish healthy communities of the future. 


The video will be shown to the next system thinkers who gather during the September, 19th Next System Project Teach-in, sponsored by the Katharine J. Densford International Center for Nursing Leadership, at The Coffman Memorial Union, Whole Music Club from 4:30 - 8pm. Look for details and register here.

And now you have one more reason to come on out the the great Minnesota Get-Togeher!

To our health! See you at the fair!

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Plexus Healthcare Call - How Can We Make Positive Change In Our Communities?

Healthcare PlexusCall - Download MP3 


Wednesday, August 17, 2016, 1-2 pm ET
Topic: How Can We Make Positive Change In Our Communities?
Guests: Vicki O’Day and David Zuckerman

Or paste the link below into your browser:
http://myaccount.maestroconference.com/conference/register/Z6LQSNXMTOPZD1ZA

It has been a long, hot summer marked by disheartening political campaigns, protest marches and senseless killings. It feels like our systems are breaking down. And some are thinking positively about what systems will come next. http://thenextsystem.org 
Vicki O’Day will share The Next System work; David Zuckerman will talk about a new business model that encourages hospitals to promote community health while also supporting the economic health of the community.

Vicki O’Day, MA, is a connector, an educator, and a futurist. She is a social entrepreneur who values learning with people how to imagine, design, and create resilient futures for themselves, their families, and their communities. Vicki is a collaborative consultant for change with twenty years experience in financial services, community organizing, and leadership for creating “next system” innovations.
As Minnesota Next System Project Community coordinator, Vicki partners with the University of Minnesota’s School of Nursing to bring The Next System Project conversation to the campus and her community. She coordinates Next System Project Teach-ins, the Minnesota Next System Community of Practice, and Next System Dialogs hosted by the Katharine J. Densford International Center for Nursing and Leadership. This community of practice is creating healthy communities using systems thinking, complexity science, action research and agency
Vicki is an active volunteer in her community, including leadership roles in Communities of the Future, Northland Sustainable Solutions, and the Future First Women’s Congress. She is a lifetime learner, a mother and grandmother, a lover of nature and life. She is deeply committed to being an advocate for future generations. 
David Zuckerman, MS, BA, joined The Democracy Collaborative team in 2012 and serves as Manager for Healthcare Engagement for the organization’s Anchor Institution Initiative. Zuckerman is the author of Hospitals Building Healthier Communities: Embracing the Anchor Mission and a contributor to Can Hospitals Heal America's Communities: "All in for Missionis the Emerging Model for Impact. His work focuses on inclusive and equitable economic development strategies that build wealth in low-income communities, with specific attention on how hospitals and health systems can deploy the business side of their institutions to support community health improvement and strengthen their local economies. 
Zuckerman has also assisted with multiple feasibility studies of anchor-led economic development projects. He is co-author of Building Community Wealth: An Action Plan for Northwest Jacksonville. He currently serves as Treasurer on the Board of Representatives for the Takoma Park-Silver Spring Co-op. He received both his Master of Public Policy and B.A. degree in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, College Park.


Tuesday, August 9, 2016

News Release from ReThink Health


Is health transformation truly possible?

Yes...if we are willing to be bold stewards of the system


We at ReThink Health believe strongly that leaders need to be bold in their thinking and courageous in their actions if they aim to truly transform the health system. At issue is not a scarcity of dollars, but the lack of an innovative vision, aligned around a system-wide strategy.

In our study published in this month’s Health Affairs, ReThink Health illustrates that select, combined investments in both population and clinical level initiatives, along with affordable long-term financing strategies, have the potential to dramatically reduce costs, improve health, increase productivity, and expand health equity over the next 25 years.

In other words, health transformation is possible.

Learn more at ReThink Health blog.

News article from ReThink Health reposted August 9, 2016.