A 'Next Generation' for Public Health Intervention Models: The Public as Innovators

Abstract

In the public health field, the design of public health interventions has long been considered to be the province of public health experts. In this paper, I explore an important complementary approach: the design and prototyping of public health interventions by consumers themselves. In the approach I propose, consumer prototype interventions are systematically identified and evaluated by public health experts, who then design improvements and diffusion strategies as appropriate. The context and support for my proposal builds upon research by many innovation scholars that has documented a strong pattern of consumer innovation in the development of new consumer products. As I will explain, product producers have learned to profit from these grass roots designs and field experiments. Instead of just searching for unfilled consumer needs, leading-edge firms are increasingly searching for consumer-developed solutions to their needs as the basis for profitable new commercial products. I explore the applicability of this consumer innovation pattern to in the public health field. I first document its potential effectiveness via published examples of its use in public health in the form of positive deviance studies. Next, I discuss the potential of a public health intervention development model that builds upon more efficient, “lead user” methods for identification of consumer innovation. Finally, I propose that research and experimentation by public health researchers on the promise of consumer prototyped health interventions will enable us to develop new methods to more efficiently and effectively intervene on preventive health problems facing the communities we serve.