Crowdicity and the RSA go back to the future
Online idea management platform Crowdicity is helping the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) reintroduce a historic project, RSA Premiums, one of the first open innovation challenges ever seen in the UK. At its foundation in 1754, the RSA introduced a series of competitions in which awards called 'Premiums' were granted for useful inventions and discoveries aimed at tackling social and industrial problems, such as improving workers' welfare and boosting agricultural productivity. Last awarded by the Society in 1850, RSA Premiums have now been revived with the support of Crowdicity. Two RSA Premiums are now up and running: the Good Business Challenge, which aims to make the heart of London an experimental zone for activity that creates new commercial, social and environmental value; and the Valuing Your Talent Challenge, which calls for new and better ways for organisations to understand and invest in their employees' knowledge and skills. The RSA's first premiums were offered for the discovery of cobalt and for the cultivation of madder (both dye-stuffs), and the Premium Award Scheme remained the main focus of the society's work for its first 100 years, coming to an end in about 1850. Early example of awards included an invention for preventing passengers in carriages being injured when horses take fright; the first lifeboat, and an 1805 gold medal for one George Smart for an invention which cleaned the greatest number of chimneys without the use of children.
Pictured: Historic association: Delegates at a past RSA-hosted event (CityCamp London, 2010) enjoy the body's historic setting, by Paul Clarke http://paulclarke.com
Crowdicity: www.crowdicity.com
NantHealth launches first open "clinical operating system"
Health technology firm NantHealth has unveiled what it claims to be the industry's first open Clinical Operating System (cOS), an open, standards-based cloud technology platform integrating clinical, financial, operational and environmental data. The company says cOS will help clinicians, providers, patients, commissioners, social care workers and researchers realise health and social care integration. The system integrates data from existing legacy systems, such as electronic patient records (EPR), patient administration systems (PAS) from multiple platforms, imaging, GP systems, diagnostics, research, medical device data, patient level costing and service-line reporting, in real-time. The platform's suite of applications also provide predictive analytics, care coordination workflows and specific portals of view for all members of the care continuum, it says.
NantHealth cOS: http://nanthealth.com/cos-clinical-operating-system/
Wyre Council and KANA run mobile advice centre in a bus
Wyre District Council in Lancashire has worked with KANA Lagan customer relationship management (CRM) software to launch a "mobile advice centre" to bring digital services to residents, including those who would normally have limited or no access to the Internet, in a specially-equipped bus. The mobile advice service has the ability to record and resolve issues of any nature and operates five days a week from seven stops across the district; each stop is visited at least once a fortnight. Wyre council has found that the bus has caused a substantial reduction in the time for handling benefit applications, and the introduction of KANA's Lagan software into the advice centre has enabled advisors working on the bus to handle enquires relating to all council services, including waste management and environmental health. By using Lagan software over a 4G mobile network the officers are able to direct enquiries and requests for service directly to the relevant team, handling more than 250 enquiries per week, the company says. Philippa Davies, Corporate Director of Resources at Wyre Borough Council said: "Investment in a face-to-face presence seems to run counter to the policies of other councils whereby the means of contact are concentrated in automated or remote channels. The Mobile Advice Centre takes the council into the locations where fewer people have ready access to technology and there seems to be widespread support for the bus amongst the communities which it serves. It has enabled a reduction in the time to process enquiries and helps to build social inclusion."
KANA: www.kana.com
