TED Community » Michael Moore

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Keeping all people healthy! My overriding passion is to enhance and support the health of all of humanity. When it comes to health, it is increasingly apparent that we're all in this together.

An idea worth spreading

Transparency. Plain and simple. Making and keeping things transparent is the key to empowerment, and social justice in all forms (health, education, socioeconomic). The changes we see in media & politics are just the tip of this transparency we need to develop & cultivate if we are going to share our world peacefully...the world is just too small for injustice. It will destroy us.

Talk to me about

How I can help you be more healthy, in mind, body and spirit. Oh, and James Joyce or David Foster Wallace. You can always talk to me about them.

People don't know that I'm good at

Day Dreaming

My TED Story

Even though I'd been a TED fan since 2005, sititng at TEDGloba 2012 and watching John Wilbanks "Let's pool our medical data" (Here with the TED Blog post:
http://blog.ted.com/2012/10/16/5-steps-for-being-an-impatient-patient-from-john-wilbanks/) showed the power of TED to showcase an idea "whose time had come" and in particular it was an epiphany for me. One of my "notes to myself" that I wrote in my notes from TEDGlobal 2012 was "Among people of thought and goodwill, the world is a very small place." and this was a shining example. Making the choices and challenges of healthcare understandable to all is a key component of transforming health care, and John managed to say what I had been thinking from a physician point of view, from the patient's point of view. Breaking down those silos of thought is where the real solutions to our wicked problems lie.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +696.00 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

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  A reply on Conversation: When confronted with new ideas like the ones presented by Mina Bissell, how do we change our views in today's scientific establishment?

  Aug 10 2012: Great comment!
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  A reply on Conversation: When confronted with new ideas like the ones presented by Mina Bissell, how do we change our views in today's scientific establishment?

  Aug 10 2012: That is a very interesting concept, Bob. how do you see that happening specifically? That seems like a pretty big leap.
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  A reply on Conversation: When confronted with new ideas like the ones presented by Mina Bissell, how do we change our views in today's scientific establishment?

  Jul 16 2012: Thanks Fritzie, you're right, I didn't give enough sub-text...in May I was lucky enough to go to the annual Council of Scientific Editors conference and one of the presentations was on how overwhelmed the peer review system is and how much current science data is fabricated and having to be retracted after publication. I think that we need peer review and curation, but I think our processes are being overwhelmed and failing us. Another presentation is on how little research is being performed to verify results, the model of replicable results is failing us because of the need to provide original results for funding and publication. So I would say the standard are not failing us, they are being overwhelmed.
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  A reply on Conversation: When confronted with new ideas like the ones presented by Mina Bissell, how do we change our views in today's scientific establishment?

  Jul 16 2012: Debra, I think you have hit on something important...that the ability to communicate scientific knowledge and integrate it my be just as important in the future as actual basic research. In a way, science now is a team sport, but we need Einsteins as well...people who can step back and see the whole picture in a new way!
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  A reply on Conversation: When confronted with new ideas like the ones presented by Mina Bissell, how do we change our views in today's scientific establishment?

  Jul 16 2012: Joris, I think you bring out some important points! I think that one of the unintended consequences of "open" science is that it pushed the funding for the peer review and curation of science to the scientists themselves, and away from institutions. This might have an effect on research, just as you mentioned.

• A reply on Conversation: What should I really do with my youth? I'm 18, and I want to really learn. Advice from any adults out there?

  May 31 2012: No, I'm not "the" Michael Moore. Sorry! :)
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  A comment on Conversation: How did you find you life's work and passion after age 40? Is it possible?

  May 28 2012: Woody, at 44 I took stock of my life in much the same way. I sat down with my most trusted and oldest friends and asked them, and I sat down and made a list of thing that made me, well me. Then I actually did it, dropped almost everything, went back to school full time and worked full time to pay the bills, and went to medical school at 46. I can't believe the life I've found for myself...and I wouldn't have traded a single moment that it took for me to get here, because the power of my path to medical school has given me so much freedom and courage to stand up for myself and my patients in a way that the twenty-something medical students never get. So Woody, I say really, really search your soul, write it down, run it by a trusted adviser...and strap on the running shoes. You're just getting started!

• A comment on Conversation: What should I really do with my youth? I'm 18, and I want to really learn. Advice from any adults out there?

  May 28 2012: I wish I could add more to the fine comments above. First, unless you have a specific skill and time schedule you need to meet. it's okay to delay higher ed. It's not okay to delay your education. If you are a strong student, keep up your skills (an iPad & Kahn Academy make that easy). Travel and figure out how to earn your way...and if you have the nerve for it, please travel outside the US to experience the world. I would say by just asking the question you have above, you're more than half way to learning what you need to learn.

• A comment on Conversation: In cities, being surrounded by strangers, social networking is what needs to help us connect with each other and create new people networks.

  Mar 1 2012: Kevin brings up a great point, but I think we need to be more expansive in out idea of "social networking" to include a continuum between virtual and f2f contact...I think that we also need to reevaluate the goals of our "networks" to include social/psychological/emotional support, economic interaction, health/wellness, community maintenance (for example).

• A reply on Talk: Brian Goldman: Doctors make mistakes. Can we talk about that?

  Jan 28 2012: This is a wonderful, Kathy. You should write more about this!