Ideas change everything

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Playlist

TED Salon: Optum

Fresh thinking on how we can make a health system that works better for everyone.

Andrew Bastawrous

A new way to fund health care for the most vulnerable

In 2011, eye surgeon and TED Fellow Andrew Bastawrous developed a smartphone app that brings quality eye care to remote communities, helping people avoid losing their sight to curable or preventable conditions. Along the way, he noticed a problem: strict funding regulations meant that he could only operate on people with specific diseases, leaving many others without resources for treatment. In this passionate talk, Bastawrous calls for a new health care funding model that's flexible and ambitious -- to deliver better health to everyone, whatever their needs are.

The pharmacy of the future? Personalized pills, 3D printed at home

We need to change how we prescribe drugs, says physician Daniel Kraft: too often, medications are dosed incorrectly, cause toxic side effects or just don't work. In a talk and concept demo, Kraft shares his vision for a future of personalized medication, unveiling a prototype 3D printer that could design pills that adapt to our individual needs.

What Americans agree on when it comes to health

We may not be as deeply divided as we think -- at least when it comes to health, says Rebecca Onie. In a talk that cuts through the noise, Onie shares research that shows how, even across economic, political and racial divides, Americans agree on what they need to live good lives -- and asks both health care providers and patients to focus on what makes us healthy, not what makes us angry.

Adrienne Boissy

Can empathy help us heal health care?

Health care is supposed to make us healthier -- but patients and doctors in the US both suffer under the current system. Adrienne Boissy, Chief Experience Officer at the Cleveland Clinic, says the root cause is a lack of empathy. When delivered properly, empathy has been proven to improve health outcomes, such as helping to control high blood pressure and managing diabetes -- and it might just be the great disruptor that healthcare needs to heal itself.

Jessica Care Moore

"Gratitude Is a Recipe for Survival"

Poet, producer and artist Jessica Care Moore passionately performs her emotional, lyrical piece "Gratitude Is a Recipe for Survival," a condemnation of the flawed healthcare system and a raw confession of her family's struggle within it.

Darshak Sanghavi

How medical breakthroughs are really made

The big "breakthrough" moments in healthcare often follow the same narrative: they give credit to the hero doctors and their revolutionary medical discoveries. Physician Darshak Sanghavi argues that this is a potentially life-threatening myth. The true secret to improving survival rates and quality of life for patients doesn't come from one-off breakthroughs, but small steps and hard work over time. To make a real change in health outcomes, we need a new narrative that celebrates the true heroes: teams.

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