Gezond Gesprek met Shawna Butler: innovatie en gezondheid
In elke nieuwsbrief gaat Karen van Ruiten met iemand in gesprek over gezondheid. Dit keer ontmoet ze bij het REshape Centre van RadboudUMC Shawna Butler, nurse economist uit de Verenigde Staten. Shawna is voor een half jaar in Nederland en zet graag haar kennis in voor de verbetering van gezondheid en zorg.
Your job title as nurse economist and EntrepreNURSE-in-Residence makes me curious. Please tell a little bit more about your background.
My career has followed an unconventional path. I have never changed careers, just added new skills to my portfolio. Studied both nursing as well as business and health economics. I have worked with a range of organizations, projects and boards around the globe in clinical, strategy and innovation roles. From those experiences, the EntrepreNURSE movement evolved. I’ve seen the benefits of more intentionally meshing with and activating the front line of care, particularly nurses, in using technology to improve the care experience and health outcomes.
You have lived in Texas, traveled the world for your work and are now coming to live in the Netherlands. So you see a lot of innovation from different countries. Which important developments do you see in technology on health?
The fast moving ones with democratizing and exponential development curves. Cloud and crowd technologies, voice recognition, robotics, mixed reality, machine learning, wearables and how each of these uses our big data sets. For example, using VR to treat and manage anxiety, stress, pain, and dementia. Wearables give us insight into our lifestyle (sleep and activity) and the opportunity for coaching and nudging to better health habits. The numbers of wearables for a healthy lifestyle is increasing every day.
What chances or risks do you see in these developments for people’s health and prevention?
What is really necessary is the combination for technology and design. Harnessing the power of ambient, passive sensing and smart product so prevention practices and early detection on health are woven into the fabric of our life style. It should not be another set of tasks added to our long To-Do lists. Those lists are already too long for patients and health care professionals.
You will be working at REshape Radboud for a year. Will you share your knowledge on entrepreNURSEship, health and technology broader within the country?
Yes of course! I would love to meet different people in the Netherlands and I am willing for connecting and sharing ideas and knowledge. With my role within the Health Innovation School I have already noticed the great amount of energy and knowledge for health and innovation. That is fantastic, so looking forward for meeting and helping. People can reach me via LinkedIn or Twitter and email.