We are building a Health Innovation Scanner - an open, online platform that can be used to explore and analyse innovations in health research, as well as activity in startups and social activity across the world. The Scanner will provide decision-makers with richer insight than any single data source alone can provide, allowing good ideas to be identified, supported, scaled or replicated.

We are collecting multiple data sources and bringing them together in an openly accessible online platform. The data will be enriched with additional features, such as MeSH terms and Sustainable Development Goal labels. We will visualise the results in a way that is highly intuitive and engaging for end users, for example through interactive maps. Throughout this process, we are engaging with a variety of actors in the health innovation landscape to ensure the outputs are relevant and impactful. See below for information on how to get involved.

We aim to shed light on hidden innovations by combining new datasets, cutting edge data science techniques, and interactive visualisations into a platform that can be accessed by anyone, anywhere.

The world is full of innovative people, projects, evidence, and organisations with vast potential to improve our collective health and wellbeing. Much of this potential remains untapped or underutilised, however, as these ideas and innovations never leave the place they were created. This project was developed in order to bring those innovations out of the shadows, allowing them to move across borders and contexts.

We want this project to be as open and collaborative as possible. Below are some ways to get involved:

• Visit the project’s GitHub page, which has been developed as part of the Innovation Mapping team’s participation in the Mozilla Open Leaders programme. We’ll be constantly revising this page as the project progresses, and it will include ways of contributing to both technical (e.g. bug fixes) and non-technical (e.g. contributing to a co-created user manual for the Scanner) aspects of the project.
• Express your interest in becoming a user tester for early prototypes of the Scanner by getting in touch with [email protected]

Supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Global Ideas Fund at CAF America