Atul Gawande on why American healthcare desperately needs innovation

The TED Interview

TED

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2022

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy in the United States was 79. Today it’s 76. When compared to other countries like the UK and Japan, where life expectancy is above 80, it’s clear that the U.S. has a lot of work to do. Today on The TED Interview, surgeon, writer, and the Assistant Administrator for Global Health as USAID. Atul Gawande talks about the obstacles the U.S. is facing and how investment in key areas like healthcare innovation, geriatric medicine, and accessible health education, could help Americans live longer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Have you listened to Talk Radio recently?
0:03.0	Let's talk about this war on white people.
0:05.0	That's a pro-quiling, it's good for you.
0:07.0	Bill the Keystone pipeline, deport illegals, build the wall.
0:10.0	I'm Katie Thornton, host of the divided dial,
0:13.0	a new five-part series from WNMC's On the Media,
0:17.0	about how the American right came to dominate Talk Radio
0:21.0	and how one company is launching a conservative media empire
0:25.0	from the airwaves.
0:26.0	Listen every Tuesday and on the media feed.
0:35.0	Welcome to the TED interview.
0:37.0	I'm your host, Steven Johnson.
0:39.0	If you've listened to the last few episodes of the show,
0:42.0	you'll have noticed a recurring theme that's come up
0:45.0	in those conversations on health,
0:47.0	the dismal trends in life expectancy in the United States.
0:51.0	In August, the government announced
0:53.0	the latest health statistics for the past year
0:56.0	and the numbers were staggering.
0:58.0	Americans have, on average, lost three years of life since 2019.
1:04.0	Before the pandemic, average life expectancy across the country was 79.
1:09.0	Still years behind many other comparably wealthy countries.
	...

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