Years ago, I received a card from one of the families in my practice with a sentiment expressed by Edith Wharton that made me think of TEDMED as I packed my suitcase for the conference …

As I headed off to Washington, DC for an opportunity to sit with some of the most creative thinkers in medicine, I was mindful of the ideas that Wharton captures so beautifully and that have made TEDMED famous.

“In spite of illness,

in spite even of the arch-enemy sorrow,

one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration

if one is unafraid of change,

insatiable in intellectual curiosity,

interested in big things

and happy in small ways.”

~Edith Wharton

 

 

It was an honor and a privilege to be considered a Front Line Scholar.  Those of us on the front lines of medicine are in a unique position to name some of the Great Challenges in healthcare, and we want to be part of the solution.  Solve those challenges?  Share our ideas?  Sure!  Thanks for asking. What better way to have that happen than over lunch.  With all the really famous speakers at TEDMED this year, I want to make sure I’ve outgrown the starstruck “oh-my-gosh-there-goes-Justin-Bieber-with-Francis-Collins” mindset.  And I’ve made peace with missing the Bob Dylan concert tonight in Richmond.

Ideas Worth Spreading.  Stay tuned.  Bieber is borrowing Collins’ guitar!  Who needs Bob Dylan.