Frequently Asked Questions

TEDMED 2013 will be held from April 16-19.

TEDMED 2013 will be hosted at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing arts in Washington, DC. For more information about the Kennedy Center, please visit: http://www.kennedy-center.org/.

TEDMED typically hosts more than 1,300 Delegates from some 300 disciplines. Fully half all TEDMED Delegates are from outside the world of medicine, from the fields of science, technology, business, culture government, religion, law, military, media, the arts and education.

The Delegate fee for the 2013 TEDMED Event is $4,950. Please be aware that this fee is non-refundable and non-transferable.

The fee covers all TEDMED Sessions during the day and TEDMED events during afternoons and evenings. The fee also includes breakfast, lunch and dinner, which are served to TEDMED Delegates between Main Hall sessions, or at evening events.

Your fee, however, does not cover lodging, which you are responsible for booking.

We welcome suggestions for future speakers, but please keep in mind that we try to feature a diverse group of speakers each year and capacity is extremely limited. If you would like to nominate someone to be a speaker, please click here.

Generally, by late winter, and only after we have contacted and coordinated with the selected speakers, we begin announcing candidates who have been selected. We will continue to release names until all speakers have been announced.

The program for TEDMED 2013 will be released within a few weeks of the event. We encourage you to sign up for our email newsletter so you will see the event program as soon as it becomes available.

We do not have a public list of Delegates for the upcoming event. However, all attendees will receive a full list of Delegates with their other materials when arriving at TEDMED 2013.

TEDMED is a community of accomplished doers and thinkers who are passionate about the future of health and medicine.

About half of our Delegates are from the worlds of health and medicine, while the other half come from science, technology, business, government, religion, law, military, media, the arts and education, among many other fields. Our goal is to have cardiologists talking to mathematicians...who talk to chemists...who talk to insurance executives...who talk to musicians...who talk to medical school directors... and so on.

It is this invigorating, unconventional mix of perspectives that gives TEDMED its ability to foster nonstop intellectual cross–pollination of news, views and ideas.

TEDMED welcomes participation from a broad cross-section of society, both from within and outside the fields of medicine and technology. If you are passionate about creating a healthier world, we encourage you to apply to attend TEDMED 2013 and embark in an amazing journey of possibilities. All applications are reviewed and answered within 24 hours.

We review each application to ensure that we have participation from a broad cross-section of society, both from within and outside the fields of medicine and technology. TEDMED creates an environment to foster unexpected collaborations between individuals in different fields.  The application process allows us to assemble a multi-disciplinary and talented delegation.

Attendance is by application or invitation.  Applications are reviewed by our admissions team, with guidelines established by our advisors from corporations, foundations, medical institutions, and government agencies. 

Yes. If based on your application we believe that you can contribute to the TEDMED event, but if your application is not immediately approved (because of space limitations or an excess of previously approved applications in your particular field), we will place you on our Waiting List. We will make every effort to find you a spot at the event, and will notify you immediately if we can do so.

No. We review applications and grant acceptances on a rolling basis. This means that the earlier you apply, the greater the probability of acceptance, as fewer individuals will have been accepted with similar credentials.

Yes. If you would rather not use a credit card, we can send you an invoice. If you prefer this option, please provide your name, phone number and contact information here.

We do not offer discounts. However, the TEDMED Front-Line Scholarships offer half- or full-fee scholarships for those who would make excellent Delegates to the event and would greatly benefit from attending, but who may need financial assistance to do so. Click here for more information on the Scholarships program.

All videos on this website are the property of and copyrighted by TEDMED, LLC. However, we make all videos available, free, to encourage medical innovation, and to keep the conversation started at the event continuing throughout the year.

Yes, we encourage you to share TEDMED videos freely, as long as they are not used for commercial purposes. We believe that the topics and ideas discussed at TEDMED are too important to be discussed only once a year. However, we do prohibit any commercial use of copyrighted TEDMED media.

No. While we want TEDMED talks to be widely viewed, we do ask viewers to respect our copyright and the work of our speakers. Therefore, we ask that you not modify or distort the TEDMED videos in any way.

No, not all talks from TEDMED events are posted as videos on our website.

Any photos taken by TEDMED staff at any TEDMED event may be used to promote the event and community in a variety of ways, such as on our website or in promotional materials.

To obtain permission, please contact us here.

TEDMED is where the world’s most creative minds meet to help shape a better future for health and medicine. Some 1,800 leaders from medical and non-medical fields come together at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and tens of thousands more participate via thousands of TEDMED Live affiliates across the globe. 

TEDMED is for those who are passionate about the future of health and medicine. Delegates who come to TEDMED at the Kennedy Center include global innovators and leaders from medicine, the sciences, technology, business, education, government, religion, law, the armed forces, media and the arts. The audiences at TEDMED Live affiliates comprise a broad range of disciplines and fields. We come together to create unexpected connections, and to explore and inspire ideas and innovations with the ultimate goal of improving the lives of our planet’s seven billion people.

Our mission is to spark breakthrough thinking and unusual collaborations that can lead to a better future in health and medicine for people everywhere. We do this by bringing together an extraordinarily diverse community of leading doers and thinkers from many disciplines and fields, who cross-pollinate their insights and ideas. The result is innovation, imagination and inspiration.

No. TEDMED is a for-profit organization, though many components of TEDMED, such as the Patron Fund and the Front Line Scholarship Program, mimic the goals of non-profit organizations, and we are in the process of establishing the TEDMED Foundation towards this end. As an “org.com,” our mission is to advance health and medicine through unexpected collaborations, innovation, imagination and inspiration.

TEDMED is an independent licensee of the famous TED event. Specifically, TEDMED is TED’s only health and medicine related, full-event licensee. TEDMED and TED work closely together. Videos of many TEDMED stage talks are posted on TED.com as well as TEDMED.com. 

TED stands for "Technology, Entertainment and Design."

TEDMED is a once-a-year global event. TEDMED happens at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC and around the world as TEDMED Live.

During the 3½ days of the TEDMED conference, we simulcast 10 thought-provoking sessions (each about 90 minutes long, comprising five to seven speakers) from the magnificent Opera House at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC to affiliates around the world. Affiliates program their part of this once-a-year global event by selecting the most relevant Kennedy Center sessions and complementing this inspirational content with their own local speakers on topics of particular importance to their audience. Live simulcast and time-delayed (on demand) viewing capabilities of all Kennedy Center sessions give affiliates maximum flexibility on scheduling during the 3½ days and the following 2 days. Our mobile app, known as TEDMED Connect, brings the audiences together in various ways.

No. TEDx events are mini TED-style, self-directed, one-day programs that occur at various times and places around the world. TEDx events must feature speakers that address a variety of topics and not a single subject. TEDMED is a once a year, 3½-day event focused exclusively on health and medicine. It happens at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and concurrently at TEDMED Live affiliates. Most affiliates, however, elect to participate during one or two days only.

On-site Delegates typically pay an event fee of $4,950 per person to attend the TEDMED event at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The TEDMED Live simulcast program offers an unparalleled opportunity for your constituents to see, hear and participate directly in an exciting multi-disciplinary dialog about health and medicine – live, at no charge, and without having to travel. There is no other experience in which your staff, team, faculty or students can experience the dazzling interplay of such varied minds, including Nobel Prize-winning scientists, the world’s most respected doctors and researchers, brilliant technology innovators and world-class artists. But our content is just one of the reasons why you should become part of this worldwide event. Bringing local speakers to your auditorium will encourage you to explore topics in health and medicine of particular relevance to your audience. The combined content will lead to stimulating conversations among your audience and, via the TEDMED Connect mobile app, across audiences at TEDMED Live affiliates around the world, creating unexpected connections and collaborations as we seek to create better solutions to the problems the world faces in healthcare.

TEDMED Live is available worldwide and, thanks to support from our Partners, free to medical schools, teaching hospitals, health systems, academic and scientific societies, research institutions, health-focused government agencies and other qualified non-profits in the world of health and medicine, including key foundations, and some professional associations. 

At this time, no application deadline has been established for TEDMED Live 2014.

Various corporate memberships are available that include a license for TEDMED Live. For more information, please contact sponsor@tedmed.com. Your corporate membership helps bring TEDMED Live to non-profit affiliates.

No. In addition to experiencing the TEDMED sessions in high definition, and seeing local speakers live, associates are encouraged to engage in conversations during breaks and communicate with other audiences via TEDMED Connect, our mobile app. During the live simulcast, associates may also ask questions directly to speakers on the Kennedy Center stage. The conversations that happen off stage are just as important as what you experience from the stage.

The TEDMED Connect mobile application is a simple-to-use app that allows audiences from around the globe to connect with each other, learn more about the speakers at the Kennedy Center, and interact in various ways.

To download the TEDMED Connect 2013 app, please click here for iPhone, here for Android and here for mobile web.

We encourage you to build your own local meetings, events and programs around the TEDMED Live program. Each day offers one to four sessions, each 90 minutes long. You might organize a one-day event (“TEDMED Day”) with two or three sessions (each featuring five to seven speakers) and then complement the TEDMED sessions with your own speakers on topics of particular importance to your organization. Video-record your talks and send them to TEDMED.com; the best will be posted on our site and the best of those speakers may very well be invited to the Kennedy Center stage the following year.

Your organization can host meals, interactive demonstrations, morning runs, yoga breaks, or simply encourage your local attendees to meet, mix and mingle. Curating an audience comprising individuals with very different backgrounds and expertise will yield unexpected conversations and collaborations.

TEDMED Live is provided on the condition that it is free to attendees in qualifying organizations. Local sponsors can be a good source of revenue to defray expenses. You should not charge your audience a fee to watch the event, but may request contributions to cover the cost of food and drinks. Under all circumstances, you should not seek to make a monetary profit from the event.

TEDMED Live is free to qualifying non-profit organizations. For these organizations, all the costs of TEDMED Live are paid for by our Session Sponsors, Partners and other for-profit corporations. 

Ideally you should have an auditorium, but rooms that accommodate 25 or more individuals are also acceptable.

Each TEDMED Live affiliate is encouraged to create its own program guide. We will provide you with the speaker line-up for each TEDMED session and biographies for each of the speakers. A few weeks before the event, we’ll publish the final schedule for sessions and speakers. This session data will also be available through TEDMED Connect.

The final program for TEDMED 2014 will be released a few weeks prior to the event. We encourage you to sign up for our email newsletter to stay informed as speakers are announced, and to receive the final program as soon as it becomes available. You can sign up at the bottom of the home page at TEDMED.com.

Please refer to the previous question for more information. But we encourage you to think of TEDMED more as an opportunity to inspire your audience about the possibilities in health and medicine and less as a channel for listening to any particular speaker or topic. Each TEDMED speaker is individually powerful. Yet, in unison with other session presentations, individual talks become far more poignant. For this reason, we strongly recommend that each 90-minute session be experienced in its entirety.

Your institution can simulcast as much – or as little – of TEDMED as you choose. For example, you might organize a one-day event (we call it a “TEDMED Day”) with two or three 90-minute sessions (each session features five to seven speakers). Complement the TEDMED sessions with your own speakers on topics of particular importance to your organization. Institutions that create a TEDMED Live event for at least one day using an auditorium-style format are permitted to offer free access to all TEDMED sessions via individual laptops and tablets. 

This information will be available much closer to the event.

Yes. TEDMED is available live during the days of the event and each session becomes available to view on demand shortly after its live simulcast.

Yes, TEDMED Live is available around the world. For now, it is only transmitted in English.

To accommodate various time zones and scheduling preferences, affiliates also have the option to experience all of the TEDMED sessions on demand. This allows you to show an entire session as it happened on stage, but at a time of your choosing. Each session will be available to view on demand shortly after it has taken place. So, for example, you might select the Kennedy Center Wednesday morning session and show it at your location on Thursday morning - or Thursday evening. It depends on what is most convenient for your local TEDMED Live audience.

Members of your audience can send questions to the speakers on the Kennedy Center stage using TEDMED Connect, our free mobile app. In order for their questions to be answered, however, users will need to send the questions during the time that the talk is taking place at the Kennedy Center. This may be challenging for you, particularly during the sessions that take place when it is nighttime in your country. However, please keep in mind that we have tens of thousands of TEDMED Connect users around the world that may be sending in questions and comments for the speakers and that only a few will be chosen to have their submissions read on stage. TEDMED Connect is also a great way for Delegates at the Kennedy Center and associates at TEDMED Live affiliates around the world to chat, make new connections, share ideas and contribute to the Great Challenges discussion.

Our simulcast is a high-volume, multi-camera, HD feed. The video stream is specifically designed and engineered for an auditorium or roomful of people. Because our simulcast is delivered through the web, it can also be considered a live webcast.

Institutions that organize a TEDMED Live event (using either real-time or on-demand video streaming from the Kennedy Center) for at least one day in an auditorium-style format are then permitted to offer desktop computer access to all TEDMED sessions during April 8-11.

We will determine affiliate requirements in 2013 and plan accordingly.

The technical requirements for TEDMED Live 2014 will be available closer to the event. In the meantime, you can reference the requirements for TEDMED Live 2013:

Affiliates needed a minimum of 1 Mbps (1000 kbps) for SD or 3 Mbps (3000 kbps) for HD through a wired Internet connection and a large display screen/monitor suitable for the size of your auditorium or event room.

PC/Mac Requirements:

• The latest version of Chrome, Firefox or Safari
• The latest version of Flash
• Display: 1280x720 (720p)
• 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster (Mac) or 2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or faster (PC) processor
• At least 256MB (Mac) or 512MB (PC) of RAM
• 64MB or greater video card
• Connection to a dedicated Ethernet line with at least 1 Mbps download bandwidth for SD or 3 Mbps for HD

Mobile Requirements:

• Current iOS device,
• Current Android phone or tablet with a high level of desktop Flash support, or
• Current Windows Tablet (NOTE: At this time we do not support Windows Phone playback.)

We recommend you use Chrome, Firefox and Safari, but not Internet Explorer. It is recommended that you update your browser to the latest version for the best results.

Browser	Operating System	Download Location
Chrome	Windows, MacOS	www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/
Firefox	Windows, MacOS	http://www.firefox.com/
Safari	MacOS	http://www.apple.com/safari

You will need the latest version of Flash.

Operating System	Software	Download Location
Windows, MacOS	Flash Video Player 11	http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Ask your network administrator or IT support staff for assistance in downloading and installing the necessary software.

You will perform several tests before the event. We will send you instructions and links that will enable you to test your system for both live simulcast and on demand viewing.

Contact your IT manager to assess your viewing location’s bandwidth capacity. Tell your organization’s IT department that you will be streaming 1 mbps (1000 kbps) of live SD video or 3 mbps (3000 kbps) of live HD video through a wired Internet connection on the date(s) of the event (based on TEDMED Live 2013's guidelines). Request that your IT department ensures your viewing location has dedicated bandwidth capacity so your audience does not experience lag time or stuttering video during the event.

Yes, you are required to test your signal and bandwidth. Password, procedures and test dates will be announced much closer to the event.

TEDMED will send you a password a few days prior to the event that will allow you to connect to the live simulcast and on demand viewing.

A preliminary TEDMED 2014 schedule will be available much closer to the event.

In case your Internet connection fails on your end (not ours), consider having backup options such as redundancy in Internet service providers or making a DVD of select TEDMED2013 talks or 2014 sessions prior to your start.

There are several layers of redundancy in case of loss of the feed.

• Two separate fiber lines out of the Kennedy Center
• Web encoding at main distribution center and back up encoding onsite at the Kennedy Center
• Manual tape backup delivered to distribution center (20-minute delay)

We have already started posting videos​ from TEDMED 2013 stage presentations at www.tedmed.com/videos, and will continue to do so on a weekly basis. Editing and uploading footage from the conference takes some time, so speakers' talks will be shared as soon as they are ready. However, there is no schedule available that indicates the order in which the videos will be uploaded.

Yes. We will provide details a few days before the event.

Yes. We have a limited number of seats for Delegates from our TEDMED Live affiliates to attend TEDMED at the Kennedy Center at a courtesy rate. This is an opportunity to physically link our audiences and explore new ways to leverage TEDMED. Send us an email at admissions@tedmed.com for further details.

There are a variety of ways to stay up-to-date on TEDMED news and information. You can sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of the page, you can follow us on Twitter @TEDMED and on Facebook, and you can sign up for our blog RSS feed.

First, join the TEDMED community by creating a member profile. Next, join the discussion on issues you care about in our Great Challenges Program. TEDMED is about sharing ideas and perspectives from passionate people all over the globe who represent many different disciplines, both medical and non-medical. The Great Challenges Program keeps the conversation going all year long.

TEDMED welcomes creative and talented people who want to lend their time and skills to help make TEDMED a success. Here are a couple of areas where your skills would be helpful:

• Speaker Coaching: We are committed to making all talks on the TEDMED stage world-class. If you are an experienced speaker or speechwriter, your abilities could help our speakers polish their presentation.
• Speaker Presentation Materials: If you are a talented designer and/or illustrator with experience in bringing presentations to life, your skills could help with our speaker presentation materials.
• Promoting TEDMED Live: Consider working with a TEDMED Live affiliate to help promote their program.

Please visit the Contact Us page. If you have questions regarding TEDMED Live, please email tedmedlive@tedmed.com

TEDMED works diligently to recruit and curate a broad and diverse community of Delegates. To help achieve that goal, we have created the TEDMED Front-Line Scholarship program.

TEDMED Front-Line Scholarships can cover all or part of the TEDMED event fee. This enables participation in the TEDMED 2013 event by applicants who could not otherwise afford to attend.

In exchange for a scholarship grant to attend TEDMED, we ask that each scholarship recipient commit to 8 hours of service to the TEDMED community. Service hours may be satisfied in a number of different ways. As TEDMED 2013 gets closer, we will prepare funds, develop the program, provide insight into the available opportunities to satisfy service hours and open the application process. Please see the FAQ's below for a greater understanding of the program.

The program offers a mix of half scholarships ($2,475) and full scholarships ($4,950). There are more half scholarships than full scholarships. This enables TEDMED to assist the greatest number of people to attend.

The scholarship awards are possible through the generous support of our major Partners, TEDMED Patrons and TEDMED. Participating Partners include: GE; Johnson & Johnson; The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Xerox; The California Endowment; Booz Allen Hamilton; Mars, Inc.; Panasonic; Verizon Foundation; Kaiser Permanente; and Target.

Anyone who is an innovator or leader or on the front lines of medicine, public service or research is eligible. This includes patients and journalists. It also includes experts from non-medical fields who are looking to apply their experience and knowledge to the world of health and medicine.

TEDMED encourages innovators and leaders on the front lines of health and medicine to apply.
For example:

• Nurses and doctors (specialists of all kinds; family medicine and GPs; RNs and LPNs; etc.)
• First responders (firefighters, EMTs, ambulance drivers, paramedics, etc., whether paid or volunteer; medical social workers; police; etc.)
• Military personnel (military doctors, nurses and medics; U.S. Defense Dept. health program directors and staff; VA medical and support staff; etc.)
• Hospital and urgent care staff (non-profit and for-profit hospital administrators, staff, etc.)
• Mental health professionals (psychiatrists and psychologists; mental health counselors; mental health clinic directors; clergy with counseling responsibilities and programs; etc.)
• Healthcare and fitness providers and therapists (physical therapists; rehab counselors and therapists; occupational therapists; chiropractors; audiologists; speech therapists; dentists and dental personnel; dieticians and nutritionists; home health aides; respiratory therapists; athletic coaches and trainers; industrial hygienists; etc.)
• Health-oriented government personnel (federal, state and county health officials; health-related agency and policy directors and staff; public policy experts and analysts; public health administrators; etc.)
• Health-related technology experts (computer programmers and Web developers; prosthetics & robotics engineers and developers; clinical technologists; biomedical engineers; etc.)
• Patients and supporters (cancer and heart attack survivors; patient counselors; patient advocates; etc.)
• Health-oriented educators and students (university, college and professional school administrators and professors; medical students; public policy and health policy students; etc.)
• Health-related knowledge workers (academic and industrial medical and scientific researchers; environmental health specialists; health science journalists, editors and publishers; health information specialists; health science librarians; etc.)
• Non-profit organization leaders and staff (NGO leaders and personnel; community program directors; philanthropic workers and leaders; etc.)
• Innovators and leaders of for-profit companies with a strongly health focused public service mission (Note: the applicant’s job and responsibilities must be directly related to health and medicine).

The TEDMED Admissions Office.

Scholarships are awarded on the basis of three factors:
(a) professional merit;
(b) financial need; and
(c) creating a multi-disciplinary TEDMED Delegate pool that represents as many different fields as possible.

Yes. TEDMED awards scholarships to men and women of all ages, races, backgrounds and beliefs, and to individuals with disabilities or special needs.

The TEDMED Admissions Office will review each application and typically get back to the applicant within 10 business days with an acceptance or with follow-up questions. We advise applicants quickly so that front-line medical personnel will have sufficient time to arrange for their responsibilities to be covered by colleagues while they attend the event.

No. Applicants may apply only once per year. Anyone who does not receive a scholarship in 2013 may reapply in 2014.

Names and affiliations of applicants are not published unless the applicant is accepted and uses a scholarship to attend TEDMED. TEDMED is committed to transparency so that the community can see how scholarship funds are used.

No. Scholarships are not transferable.

TEDMED will award as many scholarships as possible until the entire Scholarship fund has been awarded in Delegate fees. The final number of Delegates who receive funds will depend on how many half scholarships and how many full scholarships are awarded.

Public employees are urged to check with their own agency or department for guidelines.

For the purposes of TEDMED’s program, the Great Challenges of Health and Medicine are defined as complex problems with medical and non-medical causes, effects and dimensions. As such, these Challenges cannot be solved through any one-shot solution, magic bullet, laboratory breakthrough or test-tube cure.

For this reason, Great Challenges such as childhood obesity, the caregiver crisis, and the others on our list must be addressed by examining many factors simultaneously – not just medical and scientific, but also social, economic, environmental, political, legal, ethical and more.

TEDMED’s Great Challenges Program provides an online platform for our multi-disciplinary community to engage in year-round dialog on 20 difficult and persistent Challenges in health and medicine. The Challenges were selected by the TEDMED community.

The goal of TEDMED’s Great Challenges Program is not find solutions to the complex problems that our community has selected to focus on, but rather to generate a deeper and broader understanding that can set the stage for truly effective action.

The list of this year’s 20 great Challenges can be found here.

In April of 2012, TEDMED community members across the U.S. learned about a list of 50 proposed Great Challenges, then voted to determine 20 that would be TEDMED’s focus for the coming year. The Challenges that received the most votes are included in this year’s roster.

You can get involved by joining the community at GreatChallenges. Create an account and contribute to the dialog on one or more Challenges that interests you. Everyone is encouraged to ask questions, share opinions and comments, post useful links, and engage in online conversation with our Challenge Teams and with other community members. TEDMED also encourages community members to spread the word and bring their own networks and contacts to the program.

There are a number of ways you can stay up to date, including:

• Joining our mailing list
• Following us on Twitter
• Finding us on Facebook
• Reading our Blog
• Subscribing to our RSS feed
• Continually checking the Great Challenges Website for the most recently posted content
• Participate in one or both of the live online "town halls" that each Challenge Team will generate, by asking questions or posting comments.

For each Challenge, TEDMED has recruited a team of six or seven experts in various relevant fields, such that each Team combines multi-disciplinary perspectives about its specific Challenge. Team members interact with each other and the community by answering questions submitted by the community and discussing the issues of greatest concern and participating in live online events.

The following image explains the steps each Challenge will go through:

You can find out what stage a specific Challenge is on by going to that Challenge’s "discuss" page and checking the graphic at the top of the page.

You can learn more about a Challenge by going to the page about that Challenge and clicking the "About" tab. You can also click on the "Explore" tab after each Team has answered the initial round of questions, read or hear their responses and check out other comments, questions and resources posted by the community.

You can submit questions by going to the page about that Challenge and clicking the "Discuss" tab.

All questions submitted by the TEDMED community are reviewed by the Hasting Center, a respected think tank for bioethics and public policy. Questions are selected according to which topics arise most frequently, which issues are most thought provoking and which questions appear likely to generate the most useful and enlightening discussion.

You can comment on a specific Challenge by going to the page about that Challenge and clicking the "Discuss" tab. 

Approximately 10 days after the initial round of questions for a Challenge are posted on the "Discuss" page, we will add responses by the Team Members at the "Explore" page.

Between now and next March, each Challenge Team will hold two online live "town halls" allowing any member of the TEDMED community to post questions and see replies in real time.

Yes. At TEDMED 2013, held from April 16-19 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, attending Delegates will have an opportunity to focus on the Great Challenges in a program called "The Science of Storytelling".

On Friday, April 19, this program will take participating Delegates to George Washington University where they will organize by Challenge and work with professional storytellers, each of whom has a medical or scientific background. Delegates will learn new communications skills and will share their insights and stories about their particular Challenge of interest.

Two of the original 50 proposed Challenges did deal with large classes of diseases, one of which was cancer in youth populations. Both of these Challenges were carefully framed within a larger context of social, political, economic, legal, ethical and environmental factors.

The final 20 Challenges that are included in this year’s Program were determined by vote of the TEDMED community.