Can the practice of “innovation” benefit from innovation itself?

Doreen Lorenzo (@doreenl) is President of frog, USA. She is a member of the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies. 

I am truly looking forward to the Annual Meeting of New Champions in Dalian, given that the agenda is pointed toward this very challenge. It is inspiring and encouraging to see how dedicated the World Economic Forum is to encouraging fresh ideas and new, unexpected strategies for improving the world. The 2011 AMNC agenda is one of breadth and depth; it will be exciting to cross-pollinate ideas with other attendees from various industries and regions of the globe. 

I’m particularly interested in how we will combine what we learn from sessions on mobile services with the insights we will glean from discussions on disruption, fostering entrepreneurship, and possibilities across the world, including the African continent. 

According to statistics published by market research firm Research2Guidance, 500 million smartphone users worldwide will be using a healthcare application by 2015. Imagine the types of game-changing, effective services we can begin to build if we consider disrupting how patients and caregivers are informed and how they complete payments transactions, in both emerging and developed markets, via the increasingly ubiquitous mobile phone.

I’m also looking forward to sharing frog’s own case studies. For instance, frog has worked very successfully on what The Economist called "the world's largest field trial in mobile health technology."  For this initiative, known as Project Masiluleke, frog and our partners launched a text message campaign in South Africa, specifically targeting KwaZulu Natal, where infection rates of HIV/AIDS are more than 40 percent. We sent texts to 1 million mobile phones to encourage people to be tested and treated. This campaign helped triple the average daily call volume to the National AIDS Helpline, encouraging more than 150,000 people to reach out for information.

How can we scale such a mobile health campaign? How can we adapt it, to help innovate health-care services across Africa and other parts of the world? Or to create similar services in areas such as education or energy?

In Dalian and beyond, I look forward to discussing—and making real—strategies for innovation with large scale, long-lasting impact. For I believe when motivated people with conviction exchange ideas on solving basic yet urgent humanitarian problems, they can invent thrilling, efficient solutions to help communities around the world achieve not only healthier lives, but also healthier economies.