Our Philosophy
#BetterGlobalHealth Is More Than Just Our Philosophy
The Smile Digital Health team is inclusive, opinionated, principled, and passionate. Our individual values may never align perfectly, but they always point in the same direction. We respect and embrace our differences, and celebrate the shared values that keep us all excited about the work we are doing.
Our #BetterGlobalHealth philosophy is our way of sharing those values with the world. We reflect on them often and keep them in our minds with every decision we make.
We are a growing team with huge ambitions.
Small communities can have a huge impact if they are well organized and believe in what they do. Healthcare is no exception, and indeed it is a space full of motivated people making a difference. We see ourselves as active participants, but also as creators and thought leaders in these communities.
Health is a global need. The scenery and details may change in every country, but the fundamental challenges are the same. We strive to bring ideas from the grassroots to anywhere health is delivered, one record at a time.
We respect the importance of health data.
Health data is about all of us. It is some of the most personal information any of us will ever hold. We recognize that the need to keep this data safe, secure, and private must always be our top priority. We find new ways to help people understand and manage who has access to their data.
Equally important is the constant goal of making sure that data is used safely, because small mistakes with health data can lead to big consequences. We keep patient safety at the top of our minds always, not least of all because we are patients too.
We work together.
Give and take is at the heart of what we do. Our community cultivates the solutions that create value for our customers. In turn, every new challenge we tackle together with our customers helps extend the frontiers of the community’s understanding and capabilities toward our shared goals. This drives us to expand our core software and the tools available to those dedicated to improving healthcare.
Customers are always partners. We are challenging the traditional client-vendor model, working instead to create mutually beneficial opportunities and to foster relationships that extend beyond the bounds of the workplace.
Healthcare Is personal.
We are all patients. Whether we are sick people who are trying to get better, healthy people who want to stay healthy, or caregivers caring for our loved ones, we will all at some point be users of our health system. There is a personal connection in every project we do.
We are building a system we would want our loved ones to use.
Openness is the foundation of innovation.
Open standards are the fertile soil in which innovation flourishes. We value collaboration with friends and competitors alike. We believe that there is more than enough opportunity to go around and that the quickest path to improved healthcare delivery is open and honest sharing of ideas. Much of our software is fully open-sourced in the public domain, and we openly publish all of our system documentation. We seek out partners and staff who share these values with whom we can build the foundation of a new approach to healthcare delivery.
We believe that systems collaborating over shared open standards drive improvement faster and further than closed proprietary systems. We value empathy in software and design. By providing access to the full spectrum of patient healthcare data via open, published and secure APIs, we enable providers to deliver their very best care possible - all of the time, from anywhere.
We build trust all around us.
Safety is the glue that bonds people together, creating a sense of belonging and the foundation for risk-sharing, open debate, honest communication and learning. Offering a safe environment for both our internal team and our partners opens discussion and helps everyone learn and improve.
This safety allows us to be vulnerable - to show our weaknesses, give and receive honest feedback, embrace uncomfortable truths and share risks. With this safety and shared vulnerability, we consciously strengthen the trust within our team, with our partners, amongst our partners, and with the world. Everyone is invited to join us in our journey towards better global health.
The dreaming comes before the doing.
We don’t mind letting ourselves dream really big because we know that the dreaming comes before the doing. We believe that the actions of a purpose-filled company matter and that small changes can make big differences.
Our commitment to meaningful progress motivates us and those around us to dream enthusiastically and pursue magnificent outcomes.
We put the rah in Raccoon!
It’s important to us that we remember our HAPI FHIR roots, and our Raccoon who continues to cheer us along as we pursue our vision. We can’t help ourselves when it comes to animals. We bring our dogs with us to work, and Slack about our cats.
We bring our whole selves to work, and have fun when the mood strikes. Whether it’s Burrito Monday, Pancake Tuesday, Hot Dog Wednesday, Board Game Thursday, or Karaoke Friday, we make time for our obsessions. We keep the mood light and the vibes friendly because that’s how we like it.
Social determinants of health.
We are a small team and a young company but we believe that good health is a human right, and we are working to better understand its multifaceted nature.
We recognize that our mental and physical health is influenced by factors such as life experiences, workplace or other environments, and the social and economic conditions that shape our lives.
According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, the social determinants of health include:
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Aboriginal status
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Disability
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Early life
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Education
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Employment and working conditions
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Food insecurity
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Health services
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Gender and gender identity
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Housing
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Income and income distribution
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Race
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Sexual orientation
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Social exclusion
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Social safety net
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Unemployment and job security
Social causes we support.
In alignment with the Smile philosophy to create a future with better global health, we at Smile Digital Health, strive to create an anti-oppressive work environment that opposes discrimination based on ability, mental health, sexual orientation, gender presentation, marital status, race, religion or class.
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We firmly stand against Anti-Black Racism