One of my core beliefs is that if we give people access to the data, information, and tools they need to solve their own problems, they will. The Maker movement is an example of a group of people who embody this idea. They modify and improve the world around them. They look at a problem and not only say, […]
positive patterns
How to judge an innovation
Update: George Hacks is being held again this year, January 26-27, 2019. I’ll serve as a judge once again and I can’t wait to see what students come up with! George Hacks is a medical and assistive device hackathon happening this weekend in Washington, DC. The students organizing the event have done a stellar job recruiting […]
Conference organizers:
Steal these ideas!
On February 21, Larry Chu, MD, announced that Stanford Medicine X would take a hiatus. He shared the following story: Eight years ago, I posted a tweet announcing my intention to launch my first conference at Stanford. I received a variety of responses, but the one that remains the most poignant is the one I received from […]
The silver lining of jury duty
Imagine taking a 7-hour flight on a low-budget airline every day for 5 weeks, sitting elbow to elbow with the same 22 people, listening to fragments of some of the most violent, upsetting stories you have ever heard. That was my experience of grand jury duty in Washington, DC. I tried to sit quietly and endure. […]
Letter to shareholders
For tax purposes, I recently added up all the various sources of income I’d received in 2017. It was a real hodge-podge of a year since I left my appointment at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and started working on my own projects again. This exercise brought home the lesson that […]
Re-imagining care for hospitalized kids
On Nov. 1-2, 2017, Hope for Henry convened a diverse group of parents, kids, clinicians, designers, educators, and entrepreneurs to reimagine care for hospitalized kids. I’ll disclose that I am an advisor to Hope for Henry and helped organize the event, but I hope you’ll believe me when I say that it was, objectively, a […]
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