Our Challenge to TEDMED

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Very good article. I would suggest everyone to get a second opinion just to be safe. I have used a second opinion service https://secondopinions.com a few times and will continue to do so. For the time and price its well worth it, they also gave me a coupon code to share “jy15" to take 15% off your entire order which should still work. Very professional and saved me a bunch of money.

katherine Bailey of NJ 5:50PM May 13, 2013

TEDMED 2012 did not include patients and patient advocates. There is no portal for patients to participate on the dias without an invitation or as audience members unless they are trust-fund babies. This effectively directs the conversation to subjects that distract from this very real and offensive oversight. I am grateful to US News and this reporter for highlighting the need for providing the consumer with accessible/trustworthy healthcare data. Business providers are in the TEDMED room and the patient is not in the center-no matter how many times they say the mantra "patient-centered"!

Joleen Chambers of TX 12:22PM April 12, 2012

The link "Insurance" in this sentence: "the American Institute for Research and the University of Maryland in a Health Insurance
Literacy Project designed to throw a rope to people drowning in incomprehensible health plan jargon..." seems mis-directed. Indeed, one might guess based on that link and the preceding one ("health insurance market") that your piece had a secondary agenda: selling people existing products, whether or not they were understandable.

Marian Mulkey of CA 2:20PM April 11, 2012

An article in the New York times discussed the use of smartphones to look up medical questions. The searches on smartphone vs. the internet varied by what the article implied were age differences, i.e. smartphone users being younger were more likely to look up information about pregnacy and HIV. The article went on to suggest that advertisers were likely to move on this market, making the need for clear and accurate data even more valuable. Article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/technology/as-smartphones-become-health-aids-ads-may-follow.html?_r=1
my own blog: http://lmanderso.wordpress.com/

Lauren Anderson of IL 12:30PM April 11, 2012

Excellent: patients need to know what is credible data, and what is not: it's one of the roles physicians can play on the internet and in social media, IMO: as curators.
And the QS movement has huge potential to generalize the data gathered so that it is actually liberated...and integrated into health insurance coverage.

John La Puma MD of CA 6:39PM April 10, 2012