So what's really the point of TEDMED? To liberate from routine and help our most innovative thinkers take chances and do things they wouldn't normally do, see things through a different lens. Innovate our way to a better future.

If there's one thing I learned from seeing all the great mobile technology being developed at TEDMED, it's that these mobile health applications can not only empower doctors, but patients too. It can help people like me have a better understanding of my own health.

photo courtesy of TEDMED Earlier this month, President Obama announced a proposal to fully map the activity of the human brain. The initiative wo...

As the TEDMED-branded buses trundle into town, as the TEDMED-branded delegates converge on the Kennedy Center, and as the TEDMED-branded GroupInspire washes over the crowd, I will grip my drawing pen and wonder: Can GroupInspire strike twice? Come on, TEDMED. Hit me.

Growth in this field, like anything else in medicine in the 21st century, will need to be not only through adoption by the e-patient, but also via tech-savvy health care providers.

Even as physicians reimagine the practice of medicine, we must adhere to the same principles that we swore an oath to -- to practice medicine ethically and honestly, and to serve humanity.

Acute disease can be left to the hospitals, but creating health and healing of chronic disease seems to happen best in the community -- with people helping people where each one of us lives, where we eat, cook, learn, work, play and pray.

Think health reform is solely in the hands of politicians, bureaucrats, and giant corporations? It's not. Every time you go to the doctor, you have the chance to help reform our health care system into a more streamlined, effective, and inexpensive machine.

Why is it that America is still spending $2 trillion on health care, mostly treating people after they become sick? How can we shift money toward prevention, where each dollar can save us multiple dollars on treatment?

Making delegates believe their attendance at a conference will change the world -- and dashing off to do it as a result -- is surely the Holy Grail of conference organizers. Perhaps they should be looking to TED/TEDMED for clues to the formula.

The problem is actually that we're living longer, but the longevity is fueled by very expensive chronic diseases that were preventable. The dream of living a long, healthy life has been replaced by living a long, sick life.

This week, I have seen a potential future of the nation's health -- and heard from and interacted with some of the players that are trying to impact and improve it.

From April 10 to 13, Healthy Living editors join some of the most creative and innovative minds in the health and medical field for TEDMED 2012 at the...

Next week, 1,200 innovators, entrepreneurs, industry and government stakeholders, artists, and health care practitioners will attend the annual TEDMED conference in Washington, D.C.

While it seems inevitable that as we age we will experience more health problems, our chronological age isn't always the same as how old our body acts...

Researcher, explorer and author Dan Buettner has worked for years identifying Blue Zones, areas where people live markedly longer than average, and wh...

When many of us think of mushrooms, we may think of culinary delights such as Portobello and Shiitake, or we may think of those "magic mushrooms." But the implication of mushrooms is absolutely profound. They have the potential to dramatically improve our health and the health of the planet.

Watching a lean David Kirchhoff take the stage at the recent TedMed conference to talk obesity prevention, it was difficult to imagine the Weight Watc...