5 Key Messages from Our Future Health
May is packed with many great conferences, but I had the pleasure of staying somewhat local and attending a TEDx-style event in Nijmegen…
May is packed with many great conferences, but I had the pleasure of staying somewhat local and attending a TEDx-style event in Nijmegen. OurFutureHealth put together by Lucien Engelen and the great team at Radboud (amongst others) was a day of learning, inspiration and most importantly over 1,000 brilliant people who I hope will take the inspirations from that day and make them actionable within their work, community, friend circles and families.
OurFutureHealth hosted over 40 speakers in one packed agenda, so as you can imagine the 5 below are highly personal in nature and the impact they made on me. If you are interested in experiencing the full day, most of the videos are now up on their website.
Instead of recapping talk by talk, here are my top 5 key messages that I took away (in no particular order) and what is required for each and every one of us to change health care one person at a time. Each one of you will take these messages and apply them to your daily lives in different ways so without further adieu:
1. Think like a kid and just try things
This was my first time that I have seen Princess Laurentien van Oranje speak and I was mesmerized. When she first came out on stage she had everyone make little glasses out of their hands (below left), then urged everyone to raise their hands (below right) and open your eyes! Her talk, inspired by the daily work she does with the Missing Chapter Foundation, was all about leaving behind your resistance to change and think like a kid. One example she made (paraphrased) is all adults say “behavioral change is very difficult and if everyone says that it is difficult then it becomes difficult. Skip that notion and take an attitude of children — just try it, just do it”.
2. Embrace the power of connection
I have been tweeting with Nick Adkins for a few years now and randomly see him at events, but for the first time I finally saw him on stage as well as bonded with him beyond just a “moment in time”. So whats with the #pinksocks (honored to finally receive a pair)?? The socks may mean different things to different people, but for Nick it is about gifting things without zero expectation on getting anything back and during that potentially one-way gift its about a connection, a connection in that “moment in time”. In the age of escalating technology-enabled connectedness, do not forget to actually connect, to understand the human being that is next to you, to feel their emotion.
3. Develop the culture of YES
I had the pleasure of participating at a Hacking Health hackathon last year in Strasbourg, France (unfortunately I could not make the one in Nijmegen) where I met some of the founders of Hacking Health but also over 200 eager individuals to hack our healthcare system and make it better! Every hackathon I have ever attended, always makes me think about the enthusiasm of the attendees, anything is possible attitude and always in a very short time. Of course, most of the solutions that come out are not necessarily scalable as a business or a product over the 24–72 hour timeframe but the culture of saying yes is what drives these individuals to GSD (get shit done) in what seems like an impossible time-frame.
Dr. Jeeshan Chowdhury, who was one of the original founders of the Hacking Health movement, added to my interpretation of creating the culture of YES with:
“After a final no, comes a yes and with that yes comes the future of the world”
4. Get out of your comfort zone
I always make an analogy to “storm chasers”, when speaking to digital health startups. Unlike the real storm chasers that get into their armored vehicles, these individuals (or teams), do not know what is in the eye of the storm and have no shields. They are simply driven by the passion to help healthcare consumers around the world to take charge of their health. An in that respect, I am honored to be a mentor at the Rockstart Accelerator’s Digital Health program where I got to meet Oscar Kneppers.
In a highly personal talk by Oscar (I had no idea the trauma he and his family experienced years ago), he delivered a powerful message to get out of your comfort zone, make things happen and in that zone is where the magic happens.
5. Make health personal
As always, Bas Bloem takes a different approach. Him and May Kooreman put on a skit that began with a neurological examination that broke the bad news to the newly diagnosed Parkinson’s patient. The patient then asked a simple question of: “What will my future be like?” and after looking in the crystal ball, Bas responded with general information about Parkinson’s. While, that answer was educational for sure, for the patient it wasn’t enough: what is that personal diagnose, what is the impact to her and her family, what should she be ready for?
Health is personal, and they key message to all the practitioners out there is to personalize the treatments and therefore the messaging and ultimately provide the care that is needed to that one person in front of you at that “moment in time” that responds to THEIR individual future health.
I must admit it was difficult to chose from over 40 speakers, and I am sure I will re-watch most of the talks in my spare time but I wanted to leave everyone with one more message that was delivered by Lucien Engelen himself. While innovation is hard, the implementation of these ideas is even harder but we all must not forget that its in that implementation phase when we start seeing some much needed outcomes to improve Our Future Health.. TOGETHER!