How to Thrive: Takeaways from TEDx Cambridge

Patient Experience Manager Kate Brigham and I attended TEDx Cambridge last week, a one-day event full of thought-provoking and inspirational talks about Ideas Worth Spreading (TED’s mission). The participants didn’t want to just survive, they wanted to Thrive, which was this year’s theme. Speakers, including our President and Co-Founder Ben Heywood, enlightened the crowd with how we can help ourselves in small ways and inspire others in the process.

The Entrance to TEDx Cambridge 2011

Throughout four sessions packed with 30+ speakers on the topics of Mind, Body, We, and Beyond, many shared how people can improve themselves individually, by being part of a community, and by giving back to others. Some advice is expected—sleep more, drink less caffeine, eat more vegetables, try yoga—but other points were more novel.

For example, we were encouraged by Matt Daniell to try something, anything, for a month as “time becomes much more memorable when undertaking 30 day challenges.” Using research on the effects of body posture on hormones, Amy Cuddy shared that doing a power pose for just a few minutes (like putting your feet up on your desk) is minimal effort, but can benefit your brain as well as others’ perception of you. (Note: she recommended we put our feet up in private, not in a meeting!) One of the lessons that seemed to resonate most was from Priya Parker, who encouraged the audience to not worry about keeping all options open—that it’s FOMO (the fear of missing out) and FOBO (the fear of better opportunities) that contribute to many people’s anxiety and stress.

PatientsLikeMe President and TEDx Speaker Ben Heywood (Center) Along with Brothers Jamie Heywood (Left) and Stephen Heywood (Right), Whose ALS Diagnosis Inspired the Creation of PatientsLikeMe

In addition to Ben talking about PatientsLikeMe, other speakers shared the importance of connecting people with others like them, making data more accessible and empowering patients to take control of their health. Greg Epstein and Jesus Gerena, although in different fields (a Humanist Chaplain and Activist, respectively) arrived at the same conclusion: that when people come together and help one another, the entire group is empowered and everyone benefits.

Our ears also perked up when Sandy Pentland, a social scientist at MIT, discussed how important data is and stated that “personal data is the new oil of the Internet.” Further affirming the importance of data, John Sheffield talked about how he wants to make sure that genomics analysis is accessible, repeatable and shareable. He’s found in his field of data architecture that’s it’s all about connections with others, a point of view we certainly share!

Heart Patient and TEDx Speaker Hugo Campos

One story that perhaps applies most to what we’re doing here at PatientsLikeMe was presented by Hugo Campos, a heart patient who is literally on a quest to liberate data from his own heart. Although he has a high-tech cardiac defibrillator, he doesn’t have access to the data collected by this device. We’re with you, Hugo: “We all have the right to our own health information!”

At PatientsLikeMe, we help people Thrive by connecting patients so that they can share their experiences, find others like them and, together, learn how to best improve their health. From disease-specific outcome scores to our Quality of Life survey and InstantMe tool, we offer all sorts of ways to monitor your health and assess the impact of various treatments and interventions.

How do you help yourself and others Thrive? Share your thoughts in the comments section.  Also, check out the video of Ben’s talk.

PatientsLikeMe member emorgan

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1 thought on “How to Thrive: Takeaways from TEDx Cambridge”

  1. Great TED talk – so interesting to learn PLM background. I am so grateful to you all on the PLM team for giving me this forum – and so grateful to my fellow PALS. Thank you for your drive and determination. This is a widely important arena for me. Keep up the good work and keep on thriving!

    Sara

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