UK HealthCare

Viewing of Innovative TEDMED Conference Open to UK Students, Faculty

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 10, 2014) — Visionaries in the health care industry will take stages on the East Coast and the West Coast during this week's TEDMED 2014 Conference, but University of Kentucky students and faculty can stay on campus for a front-row seat.

The University of Kentucky American Medical Association (AMA) student section recently received a grant from the AMA to stream sessions from the annual conference to an audience of health care students and faculty members representing many health care disciplines. The chapter will play recorded sessions in Pavilion H of the UK Chandler Hospital on Thursday and Friday evenings, and throughout the day on Saturday. After each 90-minute session, a panel of UK HealthCare experts will discuss the main messages of the talks and how those messages relate to their experiences at UK. The sessions are open to all health profession students, including students in the colleges of public health, dentistry, nursing and pharmacy, as well as any interested hospital faculty.

Dually hosted in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., the TEDMED 2014 conference comprises a series of short, provocative talks and performances from a variety of thought-leaders, activists, artists, authors, physicians, researchers and other stakeholders in the health care industry. Each talk or performance will range from 8 to 20 minutes. Presenters will discuss a variety of topics, including solutions for today's health care problems from other worlds, new bedside eye-tracking devices to diagnose brain injuries, the economics behind drug addiction and a photographer's use of humor as therapy during his wife's cancer treatment. The goal of the conference is to inspire thought, expand worldviews and challenge old ways of thinking in health care professionals. The conference runs from Sept. 10-12.

Brad St. Martin, a second-year medical student and vice president of the UK AMA student section, thinks it's important for students to step away from their day-to-day study routine and expose themselves to different views and innovations in the health care profession. He encourages students from all five UK health colleges to attend the sessions.

"I am just hoping this will act as a forum for people to increase awareness of the bigger picture and current changes in health and medicine outside of their own fields," St. Martin said. "It's a change from the ordinary to help expand upon our ideas and inspire action."

Sessions will be held on Thursday and Friday from 5 to 7:15 p.m.  On Saturday, two sessions will be held at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. Light refreshments will be provided on Thursday and Friday and a light breakfast will be provided Saturday morning. All sessions will be held in HG611 in Pavilion H.

MEDIA CONTACT: Elizabeth Adams, elizabethadams@uky.edu