This past week I was thrilled to attend TEDMED, the medical offshoot of the famous TED conferences. (TED = Technology, Entertainment, Design.) I was invited to be one of the analysts sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Pioneer Portfolio, my kinda people: “The Pioneer Portfolio is powering ideas to transform health. We accelerate the trajectory of innovation … supporting exploration and helping great ideas to gain momentum. Pioneer focuses on the future, seeking breakthroughs with the potential to generate significant health and social impact.” Huzzah!
The Pioneer Portfolio funded the creation of the e-Patient White Paper, which blew my mind almost three years ago and set me on this path. (That paper’s at top right of www.e-patients.net.)
At TEDMED RWJF asked the analysts (and anyone else!) to record brief, informal videos on how to improve healthcare fast. Here’s mine:
More videos
Other people’s contributions are on YouTube, here. I especially like the ones from Stanford’s BJ Fogg and my e-patients.net colleague Susannah Fox – eminently sensible breakthrough thinkers.
More about TEDMED
TEDMED was aptly described by Dr. Bill Thomas, another RWJF analyst, as “a variety show for techno-minded intellectuals.” It was a mixture of speeches (some amazing, some not) with interludes by entertainers who came on stage several times a day, to do things that were more or less healthcare related.
On e-patients.net I posted about two really incredible performances.
- Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick (her real name) is a 26 year old opera singer who had a double lung transplant just one year earlier. Wait till you see her video when it’s posted in the coming months.
- Sekou Andrews and Steve Connell are a poetry/performance duo who blew everyone away with their powerful riff on owning death. Their video, too, will be an instant TED classic.
Both won instant standing ovations: they were magnificent combinations of message, medium and performance.
Others in that group are here; more will be posted. Interesting to see the range of perspectives RWJF invited.
My deepest thanks to the Pioneer Portfolio for making my participation possible.
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