Chancellor’s TEDMED Talk Promotes Patient Empowerment

UC San Francisco Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, sees a future in which health care consumers drive treatments and innovation.

In her recent appearance at TEDMED, Desmond-Hellmann shared lessons from her career as a practicing oncologist, head of product development at Genentech and the leader of a top university educating the next generation of clinicians in a 15-minute talk titled “Attention Stressed-Out Docs: Can the Consumer Be The ‘Cavalry’ that Rescues You?”

Patients need a seat at the table to help make important decisions about their care, she said. That includes working with their doctors to provide the information needed to improve care, through the use of mobile technology and donating their genetic data to a global health database for researchers.

The chancellor joined more than 60 other speakers at TEDMED, an innovative speaker series aimed at tackling challenges to create a better future in health and medicine. This year’s event took place April 16 through 19 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. to a sold-out audience of 1,800 as well as a global audience streaming live online.

Watch her TEDMED talk here:

Photo courtesy of Sandy Huffaker and Jerod Harris/TEDMED