Carleen Tabari TED Talk

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/eric_topol_the_wireless_future_of_medicine.html

In this TED Talk, entitled Eric Topol: The wireless future of medicine, Eric Topol discusses how wireless devices, such as smartphones, will improve the health of many people. He shows how they will soon be used to monitor vital signs and help keep people at home more instead of keeping them in hospitals. Already many wireless devices have improved the efficiency and ease of monitoring health. He gives many examples of smartphones monitoring things such as blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and oxygen, saying that as we can check our emails conveniently on our phones now, in the near future we will be able to check all of these and more in the same manner. Topol spends much of his talk explaining the impact of such technology on hospital and clinical resources, such as hospital beds, out-patient visits, assisted living facilities, sleep labs, Holter monitors, mammography, ultrasounds, and echocardiography, and on diseases such as diabetes, sudden cardiac death, atrial fibrillation, hypertension, breast cancer, hip fractures, obesity, and sleep disorders. Currently, experiments are being conducted to get data that will show the benefits of having medical monitoring capabilities on handheld wireless devices.

I found this TED talk particularly interesting because it highlights two very important parts of modern day life and how they relate to each other. It seems like a new wireless device is available to the public every week! It is interesting to think about the medical benefits these devices bring along with the benefits of easy access to internet, email, and communications. I originally searched for TED talks in the medical field and this was one of the first on the list. It was the connection to the wireless defenses we all depend on so much that drew me to choose this TED talk.

Eric Topol is a noted cardiologist and geneticist who currently works as the director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla, California. At this institution, scientific theory is combined with clinical investigations in order to train physicians and scientists for careers in medical research. Topol studies genomics, and is best known for his game-changing medical research. Topol also serves as a part of the West Wireless Health Institute (of which he is a co-founder), an organization dedicated to discovering how wireless technology can change the future of health care. It is because of his extensive research and findings in both areas that Topol is recognized as such a leader in the field of medical and wireless research. His main research involves bringing a new kind of medicine into practice. This medicine is specifically designed treatments based on individuals’ unique genetic structures. His goal is to open up a new world of highly personalized treatment, better care, reduced need for hospital beds, and lower costs for everybody using this new medicine combined with cutting edge medical technology. He has been called, “A distinguished scientist and physician on the forefront of the digital medical technology revolution.” Other accomplishments of Topol include being credited with leading the cardiovascular program at Cleveland Clinic, being the first physician researcher to raise questions about the safety of Vioxx, an anti-inflammatory that was taken off the market, being elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and being named Doctor of the Decade by the Institute for Scientific Information. He used to teach genetics at the Case Western Reserve University. He received his B.A. from University of Virginia, and his M.D. from University of Rochester. Recently he was named one of the 12 “Rock Stars of Science” by GQ.

The reason I initially researched TED talks in the medical field is because (as of right now) one of my goals is to go to medical school. Because of this, I also am pursuing an education in the pre health sciences department, though I have not officially declared a major yet. Over some summer break I hope to get a job working either in a hospital or at a doctor’s office to get the experience of being in that kind of environment and to be around doctors so I can learn about their personal experiences. To be a doctor, obviously I will have to go through more schooling, but having just recently decided on where I will go to undergraduate school, I have yet to think about medical school.