Online Professional Networks: Collaboration to Save Infants' Lives

I'm speaking this weekend at the Global Health & Innovation conference in New Haven, Conn. The event is sponsored by Unite for Sight, a dynamic young organization that has restored vision in nearly 32,000 people in developing countries. The audience will be a mix of students and professionals, many of whom are traveling from New York and D.C. like me.

While pulling my thoughts together, I asked myself, why should we create better online professional networks? I think there are at least five good reasons:

1. They help us find each other, and answer the age-old development question: Who is doing what on a topic, and where?
2. They help feature and comment on the best resources and expertise.
3. They help us discuss tough and pressing issues.
4. They help us avoid duplication.
5. They help new thought leaders emerge and find important roles to play in the community.

I think there are probably another five solid reasons, and I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Share them in the comments below.

Along these lines, I wanted to share our latest example of an online professional network that has been developed for the Save the Children's Saving Newborn Lives program: the Healthy Newborn Network. A remarkably collaborative development project in all aspects, the site is geared to professionals and policymakers focused on newborn health. (Often this critical focus is buried in maternal and childhood health programs.) 

Why is this network and focus on newborn health important? Statistics are staggering: Each year nearly 4 million babies die as newborns — in the first four weeks of life. Two-thirds of these deaths could be averted with basic, affordable health solutions. Newborn deaths account for more than 40 percent of all deaths among children under age 5.

What do we hope to accomplish? Through the resource library, the HNN team is working hard to bring together resources from over 60 organizations who focus on newborn health. The goal is to "un-bury" existing knowledge. They will begin hosting monthly focused discussions on critical issues, featuring organizations whose work is on the forefront of the issue, leaders who are having an impact, and resources or resource gaps that exists.

Over time, the goal is to become a lively hub of interactive knowledge sharing, featuring of programs, and policy discussion and debate, all with the aim at reducing the number of avoidable newborn deaths and other health complications in the developing world. 

This video featuring one if the true thought leaders in the area, Dr. Joy Lawn, says it all: 

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