The
Spark
Episode 5 - 29 March 2018
An army of healers
Pavan Dadlani's home country of Peru is now a booming holiday destination. But away from the tourist trail and in stark contrast, he offers a perspective on how low resource countries like his struggle to invent health solutions. Not to mention the unrealized innovations that lie in waiting.
Pavan Dadlani’s job is to play with dolls. Well, part of it. To demonstrate a breathing device for infants, he uses a baby doll to train an army of community health workers in low resource settings, so that real children can come into real, quality care. It’s a simple, but effective way to make an impact. “Innovations like this can actually save peoples’ lives – it’s amazing!” he says of the device, and the method of training. Pavan’s role brings him in close contact with hundreds of healthcare workers across the globe. His career has taken him to India, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda, where he's seen the glow on the faces of health worker's as their needs are answered by his inventions. As a Senior Scientist in Philips’ Professional Health Services & Solutions division, he brings change and innovation to peoples' lives. He works mostly with health workers who collaborate on projects with him so that they can help their community.
A simple, but effective way to make an impact: Pavan's work helps real children come into real, quality care.
In a focus group in Uganda, “they couldn’t actually imagine that one day this would happen,” he explains, of the monitoring device that the local community had been wishing for for a long time. Creativity in finding solutions for Pavan is stimulated by working with other people. “Because you get stimulated by someone else’s idea and you build on that, it really helps in coming up with amazing ideas,” he says.
Making life better Philips turns to the healthcare needs of the world as a whole to help direct our innovation process. And it’s in external interactions like those Pavan has ‘in the field’ that the spark of a new idea is often found. But it's the meeting of minds back at the office where creativity really takes off. Lucky for us, Pavan brings his skill and personality wherever he goes, and to whoever he works with. “In my career at Philips, I’m quite delighted to be surrounded by very creative people,” he says. "The rule of thumb is that you don't criticize others’ ideas. You put it down on paper and in future steps, in the follow ups, where you start to use more objective criteria, say 'Ok, now, how should we go about deciding what's the best approach?' And you do that on a consensus basis." Pavan has two goals with his career and the products he works on; that they save lives, and that they make the jobs of the community workers easier. These are community health workers who are putting their time, energy and love into helping their communities, and Pavan is doing what he can to make their work move more swiftly and more reliably.
“If I can make a difference in creating these devices that can improve their lives, it’s amazing!”
Emerging markets have clear, definite needs. And it’s innovators like Pavan who determine how thoroughly those needs are addressed. This means having the greatest impact in the most effective manner. “I’ve always wanted to work on projects for emerging markets, because I know there’s a big need,” reflects Pavan. “I myself come from a developing country.” “If I can make a difference in creating these devices that can improve their lives, it’s amazing!”
How does Pavan fast track innovation in his career? He offered these 5 tips:
Listen to the podcast to hear Pavan’s story, including a product demonstration with a difference, being creative at work, and what rural healthcare workers really need.
If you love creating and collaborating, come join the team. Have a look at our career opportunities now – you might just be surprised at what you find.
