The Power of Diversity Bonuses at GMNG
Introduction: Moral Imperative to Include More Diversity Bonuses in Health Care
What if fostering diversity and inclusion in medicine is not only the right thing to do but also the best thing to do for innovation’s sake? Scott Page argues in The Diversity Bonus: How Great Teams Pay Off in the Knowledge Economy that teams of diverse thinkers outperform teams of homogenous thinkers on complex tasks thereby creating “diversity bonuses” (2019).
Diversity bonuses happen when cognitive tools relevant to the problem at hand can be accumulated along many paths and when the problem is complex. Complex problems require the expertise of individuals who have mastered different domains of knowledge relevant to deriving a solution to the problem in question. Essentially diversity bonuses exist because no single person—no matter how accomplished that person may be—can know it all. At Green Medical Network Group, we have developed a unique user-controlled network dedicated to healthcare and technology entrepeneurship. Our knowledge-based market place has attracted hundreds of diverse physicians and technology subject matter experts to solve some of the most complex problems in the field of digital health.
Our "networking community” as a platform has helped build towards a decentralized autonomous organization that harnesses the diversity bonus within each of domain of the network. The network has been built off its members which dedicate office hours focused around our three core GMNG requirements for active members: education, research, and compassionate care. The decentralized network has been used accomplish various ventures ranging from organizing the largest minority led charity clinic conference in the history of the United States (see below Example #3) to incubating the most succesful med-tech company in ophthalmology with the #1 Eye hospital in the world (see below Example #2). At Green Medical Network Group, we have seen the inequities in the health care system and taken upon ourselves to build the first decentrilized network in digital health that truly embodies: “none of us are as good as all of us,” and is deeply committed to rural, underserved and vulnerable communities.
“ubuntu (n.) [/ oo-boon-too/] ”
As the West African proverb: ubuntu (I am because we are) reminds us, we are more powerful as a community. We are very fortunate to live in a time where technology has come to our assistance. Our network’s expertise in decentralization and blockchain emphasizes the power of the community through its ability to provide value through GMNG’s patented “RVU + GVU” metric to assigning the right team of senior advisors for any problem that it focuses on tackling. Drawn together in spirit due to the majority of the co-founders graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy Alumni, where their motto of non-sibi (latin: not for self) permeates throughout the network, GMNG has attracted the most number of high level SME’s in an efficient and AI-human enabled way .
We are a unique transparent organization that doesn’t require us to “trust each other”, but more importantly captures the value of each member through blockchain technology to promote and reward those members (through tokens) which has helped us enhance and grow the “networking community.” Our Honeycomb token (soon to be launched) by 2023, “powers the entire decentralized network's governance and incentivises the community to build the network through referring data or digital health business leads, or with helping screen new talent. There is a fixed supply of tokens, meaning the total number of tokens in circulation can never surpass that initial fixed amount.”
Sachin Jain, MD, MBA
“Diversity and inclusion is not a box we need to check; it’s foundational to winning and running a successful business,” especially as healthcare continues to evolve from an analog to the digital world.
Through our digital footprint in emerging world markets, our network is able to help our members leapfrog into the web 3.0 space, where not only can we use the internet to better interpret medical data, but also give consumers the right to portions of their data in a way that establishes self-sovereignty and empowers patients to participate in economic activity (tokenomics) that would encourage them to engage in healthy behaviors and ultimately lead to better “universal health income” for all.
Moreover, our physician-led network understands how the corporatization of healthcare through integrated delivery systems may provide better ROIs for shareholders, but has increased the “capital leakage” and “bureaucracy” that exists with the current status quo, and that is why our decentralized network helps re-establishes that peer-to-peer relationship that has been depleting over time in medicine These are exciting times in the field of digital health and we look forward to sharing our research and publications on how we are doing our part in changing the status quo. Join us to “collaborate” and “innovate,” to create the “honey” to “heal.
Section 1: Health Care is the Optimal Use Case for the Power of a Diversity Bonus for a Digital Incubator
Medicine is a field brimming with the potential for diversity bonuses. Not only can medical knowledge be accumulated along different paths but the problems medical professionals deal with every day are complex and often require the expertise of other specialists in medicine and outside of medicine (e.g., public health experts, policy makers, legal experts, social workers, tech entrepreneurs etc.). Medicine is a vast field with many areas to explore and specialize in. Any one medical professional can only master a small slice of the knowledge, tools, frameworks, and models encompassed under the umbrella of ‘medicine.’ So, even the most accomplished medical professional must rely on outside expertise. Page argues—quite convincingly—that the “outside help need not be smarter, but it must be diverse. It must possess different knowledge or skills to add value” (Page, 42). By seeking outside expertise, you create a more robust cognitive repertoire. Their knowledge and skills combined with your knowledge and skills creates a better solution to the problem than your knowledge and skills alone.
So, diversity bonuses are clearly possible in medicine, and those bonuses, if harnessed, will produce better solutions, improve patient outcomes, and better the profession. But how do we make diversity bonuses a reality? It is not enough to merely throw together a group of people with diverse training, cognitive repertoires, and expertise. Those people must have a shared mission and every team member must feel included, valued, and motivated to share their expertise with the group (otherwise no bonus). Communication across disciplines and across difference isn’t always easy and it requires practice, but it is essential to producing diversity bonuses. That is why GMNG values individuals with interdisciplinary backgrounds who have the power to translate across disciplines.
It is GMNG’s mission to create innovative solutions to complex problems faced by rural and underserved communities by harnessing the power of diversity bonuses. The issues facing rural and underserved communities in the U.S. and around the world are complicated and require teams of diverse thinkers to produce the best solutions. Through its use of its own tokenomics system, here are two examples of how GMNG systematically harnesses the power of diversity to extend our mission’s reach and impact:
Sample GMNG Use-Cases
Example Use-Case #1: The Creation Diverse Teams in Dodge City, Kansas to Address Health Provider Shortage in Rural America
GMNG’s first office was located in the heartland of rural America to make sure the initial problems GMNG solved were impactful for rural and underserved communities. In Dodge City Kansas, GMNG executives met with the late Senator Bud Estes who offered to show GMNG around the city. Passing St. Mary of the Plains College GMNG leadership asked Senator Estes about the college and why it stood empty. Thinking aloud, GMNG Executives met with local SME’s like Joanne Knight and used GMNG’s algorithm for entrepreneurship to solve the problem of health provider shortage by focusing on engaging members of GMNG that were active in education, research, and compassionate care. Through its multi-disciplinary experts that spanned from policy leaders knowing the future of medical reforms to incentivize mid-level provider care and health care CEO’s in the network who understood the financial difficulties rural communities faced - GMNG convened meetings with Rep. Estes and local colleges and health professional schools throughout the region, realizing that focusing on education and establishing a foundation for strong mid-level provider education would not only provide better health care for western Kansas, but also long term economic stability that would trickle over from GMNG’s investment into helping Dodge City raise the funding and momentum for an educational institution. Initial “Diversity Bonus” meetings took place in Dodge City with all shareholders, later led to meetings at institutations like Hesston College, which led to additional “Diversity Bonus” meetings that centered on the Physician Assistant School at Wichita State University.
GMNG’s use of its diverse “knowledge market place” and use of tokenomics caught Senator Estes’ attention because the problem of health provider shortage in Southwest Kansas had been plaguing the region for years, however the problem had become too complex over the years. As the only quadrant of Kansas that does not have a 4-year university there are limited opportunities in the area for educational advancement. As such, many high school graduates leave Southwest Kansas to pursue higher education in healthcare and, unfortunately, tend not to return - creating a never ending cycle of shortages related to healthcare providers.
By communicating across disciplines, GMNG and Dodge City leaders identified solutions to the healthcare staffing shortages impacting the rural communities in Southwest Kansas. GMNG knew, however, that there was one more knowledge domain that they needed to make this potential solution a reality. They had the medicine and public policy covered but they needed educators. As a result, GMNG focused hard to take its initial meetings with colleges and universities to the desk of the Governor. GMNG executives worked with Senator Estes’ mission—addressing the shortage of healthcare professionals in rural Southwest Kansas—and low and behold the potential solution got even better! If Wichita State University was going to go through all the trouble of expanding the physician assistant program to Dodge City, they should expand other mid-level trainings as well (e.g., the nurse practitioner program, physical therapy program, social work program etc.).
GMNG executives identified the relevant knowledge domains to the problem at hand, created a team that captured those knowledge domains, gave that team a shared mission, included and valued all team members and in so doing unlocked a diversity bonus. Through GMNG’s tokenomics system, they also developed a diversity bonus at a fraction of the cost. The goal of this project is to redress the shortage of mid-level healthcare professionals in Southwest Kansas by “home-growing them” in the community resulted in the following report and has grown in a vibrant educational foundation for the future optimal health of western Kansas.
Example #2: Technological Advancements and Medicine. Empowering Physicians in the Field of Ophthalmology through GMNG’s incubation of A Tele-Opthamology Venture
GMNG knows that technological advancements in medicine offer meaningful solutions to rural and underserved communities which is why GMNG combines physician and tech led start-ups. Such as our proprietary algorithms designed by physicians and programmers to improve patient care in rural communities. By combining physician and tech start-ups GMNG is committed to interdisciplinary collaboration—key to capturing diversity bonuses and creating a robust network of knowledge. In 2018, GMNG spent time forming a partnership with the #1 Eye Hospital in the World at Bascolm Palmer at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine to help develop one of the most impactful technologies in the subspecialized field of Ophthalmology. Intially in semi-stealth mode as “Eye.AI” GMNG’s large network of senior medical advisors in ophthalmology and machine learning used the tokenemic system to develop the early foundation of the company.
The Objective
COLLABORATION: Work with Bascom Palmer Eye institute on current and new AI research projects
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT: Publish new findings in leading journals
COMMERCIALIZE & INNOVATE: Innovate and create new technology for commercialization
NEW IENTURE: Launch new startup to capitalize on innovation with sustainable business model
ALL START TEAM: Build world class team of physicians, innovators, engineers and designers
VISION & LEADERSHIP: Build academic reputation as industry experts and disrupters
The Opportunity
Create and launch new venture with unique technology and sustainable business model
Partner with Bascom Palmer Eye leveraging existing imaging for research & development
Identify business needs and gaps in eye care and create unique AI algorithms
The Venture
The founding team will work together to create a new business in a collaborative manner
A new company will be formed with shares allocated based on roles and responsibilities
A founder’s agreement will be created, agreed upon and signed by all team members
Seed financing and initial capital will be obtained to launch and sustain the venture until cash flow
GMNG’s go-to-market strategy and its multi-disciplinary network of senior medical advisors in ophthalmology and technology was used by the founders of www.seeheru.com to scale their successful business model that is now a succesful Series A funded company. GMNG’s role in helping incubate its first venture in the field of ophthalmology has led to additional ventures still in incubation stage.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely used in China in healthcare (Olcott, 2022). AI not only improves accuracy and speed but it’s use is also driven by need. There are not enough medical professionals to care for the rapidly aging Chinese population in rural communities. AI has been deployed in rural hospitals to redress this mismatch between the number of healthcare professionals and the population.
AI and other digital tools in healthcare are not lost on GMNG as a powerful tool to address problems facing rural and underserved communities. AI does, however, present its own problems as it requires the availability of high-quality data and raises thorny technological and ethical questions in its design and implementation. Concerns about privacy and security may spring to mind. Further, the algorithms themselves in many cases are flawed and perpetuate bias and inequality. As Susanna Schellenberg, PhD, points out, “Biased algorithms are a problem since they lead to biased outcomes. By repeating our past practices, algorithms not only automate the status quo and perpetrate bias and injustice, but they amplify the biases and injustices of our society” (2020). Similarly, digital tools in healthcare often do not reach those most in need and are instead made available to privileged communities further exacerbating health disparities.
So, while technological advancements and digital tools in medicine offer meaningful solutions to complex problems in healthcare, they also have their own problems. Problems which require the expertise of not only tech entrepreneurs and medical professionals but also legal and ethics and advisors of artificial intelligence. Which is why GMNG’s network and teams include all the above! We bridge the gap between the sciences, technology, and the humanities to keep the human in medicine.