Colleagues standing in group talking.
Pioneering Ideas

What can we do today to create a healthier, more equitable tomorrow?

New technologies, scientific discoveries and cultural shifts are redefining our future. We work with pioneering scientists, anthropologists, engineers, artists, and other creative thinkers across the nation to help us explore and accelerate cutting edge ideas and emerging trends that could advance health equity. It is through their ingenuity that we will build a healthier future for all.

While we are always on the lookout for any pioneering ideas that could help us live our healthiest lives, we are particularly interested in learning how we can influence the future in these four areas:

  • The Future of Food...where all have access to food that is healthier for our families, our workers, and our planet.
  • The Future of Social Interaction...where we have found healthier ways to connect with one another, regardless of the beliefs we hold or the technologies we use.
  • The Future of Work...where all jobs in every way possible, support our efforts to live our healthiest lives.
  • The Future of Evidence...where trusted information is collected, shared, and used ethically and equitably to advance wellbeing.

 

The equitable future we all deserve won’t simply arrive—we must create it together.

What is a pioneering idea? graphic.

Related Initiatives

 

We support unconventional approaches and breakthrough ideas that help anticipate, adapt to, and influence a future where everyone in the United States has the opportunity to live their healthiest life possible. The initiatives featured here are examples of projects that are pioneering in one or more ways.

The pediatric emergency department at the Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, NJ.

Challenge Assumptions

Rather than leading to bad decisions, "crowdsourcing" can actually improve medical decisionmaking.

Visit Network Dynamics Group
Jóvenes SANOS led a healthy restaurant initiative that spurred the approval of an ordinance that requires new restaurants stations to offer and highlight healthy options. Santa Cruz is one of six winners of the inaugural RWJF Roadmaps to Health Prize.

Upend the Status Quo

Gig work can be made more equitable with fair pay, stable hours, and safe working conditions.

Visit aspeninstitute.org

Explore Emerging Trends

Could generative AI pomote collaboration, compassion, and other behaviors in online communities?

Visit news.yale.edu
Soho, New York, USA. Walking.

Expand Thinking

Often overlooked as a health issue, noise can trigger stress and heart-related conditions.

Visit communitynoiselab.org
A nurse creating a gadget to improve bedside care. A project of MakerNurse.

Offer New Perspectives

Nurses with a "maker" mindset are improving care at the bedside. 

Visit makernurse.com
J'Shuan Eagins, Forward Promise - Oakland

Ideas from Other Fields

Using Afrofuturism, high school kids are imagining a healthier future where Black and Brown people thrive.

Visit mocha.org

Related Content

 

Blog Post
James Williams, officer with the San Antonio Police Department Mental Health Unit on a call at a home.

How the Future of Work May Impact Our Wellbeing

The health of workers in a rapidly changing work environment is often overlooked. In a time when incomes, schedules, and healthcare are becoming less predictable.

6-min read

Blog Post
A nurse shows off the prototype of the shower sleeve she designed at the first medical maker space.

How the Maker Movement is Innovating Healthcare

Nurses are natural problem solvers. That's why MakerNurse encourages nurses to continue devising their own solutions, then give them the tools to create them.

3-min read

Featured Resources

 

Purple graphic, featuring a light bulb, that reads: Do You Have A Hunch?

Hunches

A hunch is an inkling, a possibility, a sneaking suspicion about the future. We don’t often share our hunches, but when we do, amazing things can happen. Share yours!

Visit shareyourhunch.org
What's Next Health graphic

What’s Next Health

Our publication explores a range of signals, emerging trends, and pioneering ideas that can help us all anticipate and influence a more equitable future.

Visit medium.com

Take Us to a Better Place: Stories

Using the power of fiction, this collection of 10 short stories published by RWJF helps readers imagine possible pathways to a Culture of Health.

5-min read

Read the stories

Submit a Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health Proposal

We seek to support unconventional approaches and breakthrough ideas that can help lead the way to a future where everyone in America can live their healthiest life possible.

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