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TED Talks Daily

A personal health coach for those living with chronic diseases | Priscilla Pemu

TED Talks Daily

TED

Creativity, Ted Podcast, Ted Talks Daily, Business, Design, Inspiration, Society & Culture, Science, Technology, Education, Tech Demo, Ted Talks, Ted, Entertainment, Tedtalks

4.111.9K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2020

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There's no shortage of resources to help people change their health behaviors -- but far too often, these resources aren't accessible in underserved communities, says physician Priscilla Pemu. Enter "culturally congruent coaching," a program Pemu and her team developed to help patients with chronic diseases monitor their health with the assistance of a coach from their community. Learn more about how this approach transcends language and cultural barriers -- and could potentially transform health care in America.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

This TED Talk features general internist Priscilla Pimu, recorded live at TED Residency 2019.

0:10.0

When I first became a doctor in Benin City, Nigeria, some 30 odd years ago, I was drawn to help people live full lives.

0:21.6

But often I found myself feeling impotent.

0:25.6

Here I was, I was a brand new doctor with all these skills,

0:29.6

but I couldn't cure my patients who had chronic diseases.

0:34.6

Illnesses like heart disease, asthma, diabetes. It needed more than just

0:41.5

handing them a prescription or providing brief counseling in the office to get the job done.

0:47.8

Fast forward 15 years later, I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. It's a different world, but it was deja vu all over again.

0:57.3

As doctors, we see our patients who have chronic illnesses in an episodic way.

1:03.8

In between, the patients have to learn how to make a lot of decisions for themselves.

1:09.7

I'll give you examples.

1:11.5

If you have medications you're supposed to take every day, what do you do when you're sick?

1:16.5

Are you still supposed to take it?

1:18.3

How do you recognize a complication when it happens?

1:21.2

How do you recognize a side effect when it happens?

1:23.4

What do you do with it?

1:24.8

In addition to all of this, they're dealing with the inevitable loneliness,

1:29.9

isolation, and anxiety

1:31.5

the people who have chronic illnesses deal with.

1:35.8

In the U.S. alone,

1:37.5

six in ten adults have a chronic illness.

1:41.1

That's 125 million people.

...

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