5 TED Talks About Healthcare in America

This country’s healthcare system is undergoing some changes. Technological advancements are transforming the way people are treated. However, some individuals believe this may be the beginning of the end for face-to-face human care. Also, some revelations are shaking up the way patients handle their treatments.

In recent times, America’s healthcare has been placed in the forefront of many people’s thoughts. Although advancements in technology have made it possible to detect problems earlier and circumvent invasive procedures, many individuals argue it has taken personal care out of the medical industry.

TED Talks discuss important ideas that must be addressed before going forward. They offer great insight into how to improve patient treatments and make America’s healthcare better than ever. Here are five TED Talks that discuss various aspects of healthcare in America.

1. A Doctor’s Touch

Abraham Verghese discusses the importance of a doctor’s touch in his TED Talk. As technology is taking over a vast majority of everyday tasks, it is also dominating America’s healthcare industry. Verghese explains this may be the end of medicine’s most powerful tools. If computers and similar devices encompass medicine, human touch will be lost. Today, patients are mainly viewed as data points. He calls for a return to a time when individuals received one-on-one time from a physician. He persuades his audience the power of informed human observation trumps computer testing in every way.

2. Medicine’s Future? There’s an App for That

Daniel Kraft is the curator for FutureMed, a program that explores new technologies and their potential in biomedicine. His TED Talk takes a look at the future of medicine. In today’s age, people live with smartphones filled with apps that do everything. These include tools that can be used in the healthcare industry. Thanks to technology, a patient can utilize an application that delivers diagnostic information to his or her fingertips.

3. Are We Over-Medicalized?

The TED Talk “Are We Over-Medicalized?” by Ivan Oransky examines the current state of the way patients want to be treated. It seems today’s society is fixated on preventing illnesses. People go to great lengths, including self-medicating, in order to stay well.

In his provocative speech, he uses baseball metaphors to explain how over-medicalized the healthcare industry has become. He describes the “three strikes” against women and puts preventative medicine into a new prospective.

4. His and Hers…Healthcare

In this TED Talk, Paula Johnson discusses the fundamental differences between men and women. Besides the obvious, women often need different medical treatments than men. In conventional medicine, nothing differentiates males and females. This can cause numerous conditions to go misdiagnosed. Johnson sites many examples where women’s health issues present themselves in unique manners. She urges females to become proactive and ask their doctors if their conditions can be treated differently. If male and female differences are not identified, it places many women’s lives at risk. She ends by telling women their health is “too important to be left to chance.”

5. A Bold New Way to Fund Drug Research

Roger Stein, a finance expert and research affiliate at MIT, outlines a bold new way to fund drug research. In this talk, he astonishes the crowd by revealing 20 years’ worth of potentially life-saving medicine is sitting idle in labs instead of being put to good use. The reason behind this travesty is lack of funding. Medical trials are extremely expensive and risky. Thanks to Stein’s financial background, he has outlined a way to mitigate these risks. He unveils a financial model that could move hundreds of helpful drugs toward the testing process.

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