Richard Branson’s blog is a fantastic read and he’s spot on in this latest posting discussing what it takes to make world changing ideas happen:

“I’ve always believed that momentum for creating change begins with sharing an idea, even if the idea doesn’t seem that great to begin with… …Sometimes people are slightly reticent to share their ideas, because they fear they will be laughed at or dismissed. It is often these ideas that are the most groundbreaking. As the writer Arthur C. Clarke said: ‘New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can’t be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it’s not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!’”

It’s now 8 years since we launched 3G Doctor – an idea that I had to create a service that would let members of the public pay a reasonable fee for a documented mobile video consultation with a registered Doctor – and it’s interesting to look back to the times when we probably went through these periods:

1) December 2006: The first Patient visited our obscure little website and paid us with their own hard earned money to chat about concerns they had with a treatment their Doctor had started them on.

2) July 2008: The President of the ICGP tells a Journalist with a National Newspaper that the 3G Doctor service provides “convenience but nothing more”. Related.

3) Jan 2011: President Barack Obama’s favourite mHealth use case: face-to-face video chats with Doctors.

Please feel encouraged to share in the comments how your mHealth idea passed through the 3 stages…