Exploring What We Don’t Know at TEDMED 2011



Pioneer is proud to once again sponsor TEDMED, which brings together innovative thinkers and leaders across the fields of medicine, science, business and technology. Traditionally, when people attend TEDMED, they come looking for ideas and inspiration. This year from October 25-28, the Pioneer team will be looking at things from a different perspective: What don't we know about some of the greatest challenges facing health and health care.

TEDMED has identified a tentative set of Twenty Great Challenges of Health and Medicine—deeply rooted problems with multiple, interconnected causes and ripple effects—which they plan to include as part of their 2012 conference. We’ve offered to help TEDMED examine these issues and we believe a good first step is to take a step back and ask: What don’t we know about these problems? What relationships aren’t we seeing?

To do this, we’ll be engaging all 600 conference attendees to get their thoughts on “what don’t we know” about these 20 challenges. Looking closely at what we don't know will help create a big-picture understanding of these challenges—a crucial step to developing truly effective solutions.

We invite you to join us in this exploration. Take a look at TEDMED’s Twenty Great Challenges of Health and Medicine. Then, answer the question, "What don’t we know?" about any of these challenges by tweeting #TEDMEDchallenges, posting a comment below, or e-mailing us at pioneerblog@rwjf.org.

Afterwards, we’ll be compiling what we heard at the conference and what you’ve told us to help TEDMED shape their new Great Challenges Program. Your input is valuable and will directly inform what is done at the TEDMED 2012 conference. We’ll share what we’ve learned in future posts.

How can you share your ideas?

• Tweet #TEDMEDchallenges to tell us what don’t we know about TEDMED’s Twenty Great Challenges of Health and Medicine. Tweet about any or all of the issues. 
• Post a comment below. 
• Follow @pioneerrwjf and #TEDMEDchallenges to see what others are saying.

Be sure to check back throughout the week and next for updates from our guests and team members.

Comments

[Carmen Gonzalez]

In reviewing the challenges, I am struck by how many probably involve literacy. There are two issues I see implicated here: the strict interpretation of the patient's ability to read and comprehend information (as with medicine prescriptions); and the patient's overall medical literacy in understanding why adherence is important to his health (e.g. taking a complete course of antibiotics because it is the length of the treatment that confers protection). What we often don't know about the big challenges is the how to address a patient's literacy in both contexts. I would hope that in tackling this that the TEDMED staff invites more than academics, and also includes storytellers to participate---they know how people learn in memorable ways.

[Ben]

It is wonderful that RWJF sponsors TEDMED; I've watched many interesting TEDMED talks over the internet from the past two conferences. Some of them are truly inspiring and I can't help but watch them over and over again!

I love the concept of The Grand Challenges of Health and Medicine. Most interesting to me is that almost half of them have something to do with the delivery of health care. Others address primary prevention, which is, of course, ideal but in many cases not feasible. I think that health care delivery is nevertheless the area where the most potential for improvement of patients' lifes lies.

There are, however, a few problems that are not addressed by any of the Great Challenges, and in my opinion they might be more important than any single one of the ones currently proposed.

One of them involves access to medical care. This is a controversial topic, but there are maybe around 30 mio. uninsured people in the U.S., and many more are "under-insured". Medical bills is the #1 reason for personal bankruptcy.
This leads to two other problems. First, people will only go to the doctor when they feel they have to, and this will often be too late resulting in less than optimal outcomes and higher cost. The second is that many seek care in emergency rooms which are clogged and where no continuity of care can be provided.

The second big complex that I am missing is variation in practice as well as the cost of care. More or less aggressive treatments will often not be based on the patients' preferences but the medical "culture" in a particular area or be determined by where doctors trained. It is obvious that not just outcomes will differ but also costs. More is not always better, and there are some areas in the U.S. where both quality is higher and costs are lower.
Not all the excess costs in the U.S. (compared to other countries' health care systems) can be linked to over-/under-/mis-use; there are other problems related to costs, too.

One important problem that might be touched on by one of more of the Challenges is how to share medical records electronically.

One more comment on informed consent: I believe that this is a misnomer. If I was a patient, I wanted not just to "consent" in a treatment plan but to actively participate in the decision-making!

[Katheirne Ellington]

Violence and Health

The world of violence takes its toll on health. Where there is no peace, health is not possible.From bullying to intimate partner violence, refugee/immigrant abuses to war-torn countries. There are those taking on the challenge to fight against abuse, conflict and bloodshed to reduce violence and improve health in neighborhoods and communities around the world with creative strike and innovative push they are solving complex problems particularly in vulnerable populations. Feeling safe is good for health and society.

[www.klonopinx.com]

Such a good post! Thanks for sharing and guess i will be back soon on your blog!