TEDMed.com 2011

As a Carmel Valley San Diego community pediatrician, I found it important for me to attended the TEDMED conference. TED.com stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. A given conference can then be narrowed down to Global, Medicine, Woman, Technology etc. TEDMED is in its third year being held at The Coronado Hotel right here in San Diego. I just couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to be in the audience as part of this conference. TEDMED is a conference where people come together to connect, understand and inspire each other with ideas that may seem unconventional and out of the ordinary. Everyone’s goal is help improve the problems in health care and medicine. In doing so we can help create the world a better place to everyone. Presenters have 18 minutes to present their ideas.

It’s inspiring and mind blowing to see so many people with bright ideas in different technologies, medicine and cancer. There are people out there who are doing incredible things to help the human race live in a better world.

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It will impossible to begin to summarize the talks – but the ones that touch my soul and rattled my mind stand out.

• There was the Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Regina Benjamin, talking about joy, wisdom and exercise. I shook her hand and gave her my card!!

• Lance Armstrong was there to inspire everyone after a very public battle with cancer.

• The Pediatric Oncologist doctor who he himself had spent the last summer dealing with his own bout of cancer and how survived and learned even more about the family’s struggles with cancer.

• There was this actor, who was a hand model, and spoke about how valuable our hands are.

• And “the mushroom man.” Turkey tail mushrooms are being studied as a way to boost the immune system for those undergoing cancer treatments.

• The architect who is helping hospitals design better handicap access rehabilitation rooms – this of course, only after his own experience dealing with his own handicap.

The future is bright in spite of all the negativity out there, the FDA and the difficulties in approving new drugs and our never-ending battle with obesity. We learned that above all PREVENTION is the most important part of our health along with STRESS reduction. All of the days were sprinkled with little bouts of music and magic, healthy food and new friends.

Being at the conference was stimulating, inspiring and forced me to step out of my comfort zone by talking to strangers. I didn’t know a single other person in the 800 group that attended the TEDMED 2011. But, our ideas blended, the motivation for a better future for everyone and the enthusiasm to help one another was contagious and overflowing with every handshake.

MY take away messages:

• Listen to others who may or may not have anything in common with your field of interest and who knows, you may learn something as much as someone else will learn from your perspective too.

• But above all, nurture a sense of purpose, stay connected with your loved ones, and don’t forget the importance of pleasure and joy in your life.

To my patients, my staff, Dr. Dailey and Peggy – thank you for always being there to help me as I took time to stretch my imagination and come back with renewed spirit to better serve our families and children.

Stay well,

Dr. de Freitas
The newest TEDMEDster!

 

 

Founder of Healthy Chats, Dr. Chrystal de Freitas is a pediatrician, author and mother of three children who has a special interest in health education. She completed her pediatric training at the University of Washington, in Seattle, WA, and has been in private practice for 22 years. She practiced with North County Health Services in Encinitas, for 6 years. In 2004, Dr. de Freitas opened her solo private practice of pediatrics, Carmel Valley Pediatrics in San Diego, CA.