Creating Value with Values: Social Innovation Leaders Share Successes and Look Ahead

In the past, pediatrician William Kennedy would get in his car and drive for two hours to see some of his young patients. But now, thanks to so-called "telehealth" technology, Dr. Kennedy, who is the chief of pediatric urology at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, California, can consult with out-of-area patients in a clinical setting using video communication and collaboration technologies.

He and his patients both benefit from Cisco's HealthPresence technology, which has ushered in a new era of healthcare that focuses on the importance of the doctor-patient relationship by providing connectivity to high-definition video, audio and third-party medical devices for an enhanced doctor-patient remote consultation. In particular, this technology extends medical services to underserved groups for whom access to a doctor is not easy.

Being far away from urgent medical care is something that Dr. Kennedy knows personally. Getting his brother, who suffered from metastatic Ewing's sarcoma, to a hospital 25 miles away from home was a difficult undertaking for his family back in the 1970s.[1] Four decades later, patients can rely on technology to bridge the gap.

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Reynard is a Justmeans staff writer for Sustainable Finance and Corporate Social Responsibility. A former media executive with 15 years experience in the private and non-profit sectors, Reynard is the co-founder of MomenTech, a New York-based experimental production studio that explores transnational progressivism, neo-nomadism, post-humanism and futurism. He is also author of the blog 13.7 Billion Years, covering cosmology, biodiversity, animal welfare, conservation and ethical consumption. He is currently developing the Underground Desert Living Unit (UDLU), a sustainable single-family dwelling envisioned as a potential adaptation response to the future loss of human habitat due to the effects of anthropogenic climate change. Reynard is also a contributing author of "Biomes and Ecosystems," a comprehensive reference encyclopedia of the Earth's key biological and geographic classifications, to be published by Salem Press in 2013.