Great Challenges live events double-header: Teams of experts discuss medical innovation, preventing errors in healthcare

TEDMED held two live events yesterday with team leaders from the Great Challenges program.

The first, achieving medical innovation, centered on affordability, oft cited as a barrier to getting new products and services to market, particularly technology.  Participants quickly countered the notion by pointing out how often innovation is introduced to save money — and how small, cost-efficient steps can make a big difference.  Watch the group here:

TEDMED Great Challenges: Achieving More Medical Innovation, More Affordably

For more on this event, see the Twitter recap by MedCityNews, “TEDMED innovation panel: We’re on the verge of a patient engagement explosion.”

A second group met later in the afternoon to talk out the more sobering topic of medical errors. Here, too, the topic of where and how to innovate, and particularly when technology helps or harms, figured large in the conversation, as well as introducing novel collaboration.  In this case, however, the group agreed that the system must first cure itself before asking further involvement from patients in their own care.

TEDMED Great Challenges: Reducing Medical Errors

John Nosta, EVP of Ogilvy CommonHealth, moderated the events.  The program is sponsored by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  See TEDMED’s Google Plus page for upcoming Hangouts, which will be held almost ever week through February.

Michael Graves: When will hospitals design for patients?

Michael Graves at TEDMED 2011

Architect Michael Graves spent months in a rehab center following a serious illness, only to discover that the design of his room and furniture — and that of most hospitals — fails to meet even basic needs of patients and staff, especially those who are disabled. See what he has designed instead for the hospital of the future.

Chris Toumazou: Semiconductors do a body good

Chris Toumazou at TEDMED 2011

Biology is analog, not digital: The biomed engineer and CEO of DNA Electronics shows how low-energy, low-cost analog semiconductor devices can mimic or replace biological processes and efficiently monitor vital signs from afar.

Rick Smolan’s fondest wish

Rick Smolan at TEDMED 2011

Phenomenal photographer and co-founder of the “Day in the Life” series, Rick Smolan, shows TEDMED some of the most vivid scenes from his own life.  Take a peek inside the personal world of one of humanity’s most perceptive observers.

John Wynn: Don’t fight death too hard

John Wynn at TEDMED 2011

An awareness of our own mortality can push us to strive and suceed socially, but at what cost? John Wynn’s illuminating talk, like Steve Job’s famed Stanford commencement speech, poses important questions about how we spend our precious time on earth.

Alexander Tsiaras: The body visual

Alexander Tsiaras at TEDMED 2011

If you could see inside your body, what would it tell you? The founder, along with Deepak Chopra, of The Visual MD showcases the virtual-reality website, which uses videos and detailed graphics to show diseases and treatment effects.

Bill Doyle: Zapping cancer cells with electric fields

Bill Doyle at TEDMED 2011

A new approach to shrinking or slowing tumors, Tumor Treating Fields, uses electric fields to interrupt cancer cell division, with few or no side effects. Could this revolutionize cancer treatment?

Lance Armstrong: Why I went public with my cancer

Lance Armstrong & David Agus at TEDMED 2011

After he was cleared of cancer, Lance Armstrong’s doctor presented him with the “obligation of the cured” — to help raise awareness of the disease and help those suffering from it. Lance, listened, and how. He tells oncologist David Agus how LIVESTRONG was born.

Ashley Dombkowski: We are family

Ashley Dombkowski at TEDMED 2011

Wouldn’t it be fun to find out you’re related to, say, Meryl Streep? Or Michael Jordan? Ashley Dombkowski of 23andMe talks about how genetic testing can reveal surprising family connections, and may change the way we think about our fellow humans.