FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                               

For more information, contact:

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Sheila Champlin – (901) 448-4957, schampli@uthsc.edu

 

 

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center

To Host TEDMEDLive Simulcast

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Memphis, Tenn. (March 26, 2012) – From April 10 to 13, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) will host a TEDMEDLive Simulcast on its Memphis campus, inviting about 250 local health care professionals to participate in each day’s events.  TEDMED will gather 1,200 adventurous thinkers and doers from a wide array of medical and non-medical disciplines at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.  For three and a half days, the uniquely diverse community will explore the ideas, innovations and challenges that will shape the future of health and medicine for 300 million Americans and the world.

The live simulcast will include 11 sessions, featuring 50 presenters and topics.  Each speaker takes the stage for about 15 to 18 minutes, with very few slides, no PowerPoint and no panel discussions.  Speakers share stories in their lives and experiences that connect the participants to topics in a personal way that can be surprising and infer much broader implications.  Described as Cirque du Soleil for the mind, the HD (high definition) simulcast of TEDMED will give the audience an opportunity to interact directly with the TEDMED stage and to communicate with TEDMED speakers after the conference.  The first session will be held on Tuesday, April 10 from 4 to 6 p.m.

Speakers for this year’s TEDMED conference include: Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health; Gail McGovern, president and CEO of the American Red Cross, Cookie Monster from “Sesame Street,” and Todd Park, U.S. Chief Technology Officer to The White House.  TEDMED will feature entertainment from a variety of performers including singer Jill Sobule, spoken word artist Sekou Andrews, and urban acrobatics group Traces.

“I am very excited that UTHSC joins more than 2,000 simulcast locations to host this one-of-a-kind event to spark inspiration, innovation, and imagination,” said Chancellor Steve Schwab, MD.  “This is just another way for us to fulfill our research mission by constantly learning and communicating with our partners in the community and our health care constituents nationwide.”

TEDMED was established by Marc Hodosh and Saul Wurman, who created and chaired the groundbreaking TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conferences from 1984 to 2002.  This is the first year TEDMED will offer this free simulcast to teaching hospitals, medical schools, research institutions, university life science departments, state and federal government agencies, health-oriented corporations and non-profits across the nation.  A full schedule of the 2012 TEDMEDLive sessions can be found at www.tedmed.com.

As the flagship statewide academic health system, the mission of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) is to bring the benefits of the health sciences to the achievement and maintenance of human health, with a focus on the citizens of Tennessee and the region, by pursuing an integrated program of education, research, clinical care, and public service.  In 2011, UT Health Science Center celebrated its centennial: 100 years advancing the future of health care.  Offering a broad range of postgraduate training opportunities, the main UTHSC campus is located in Memphis and includes six colleges: Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy.  The UTHSC campus in Knoxville includes a College of Medicine, College of Pharmacy, and an Allied Health Sciences unit.  In addition, the UTHSC Chattanooga campus includes a College of Medicine and an Allied Health Sciences unit.  Since its founding in 1911, UTHSC has educated and trained more than 53,000 health care professionals on campuses and in health care facilities across the state.  For more information, visit www.uthsc.edu.

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