Hello my dear fellow students ☺
As you know, we are supposed to write about a TED
talk video. I have chosen a presentation called The big idea my brother inspired given by the mechanical engineer Jamie Heywood. In 1998, he had to
discover that his younger brother Steven was diagnosed with the terminal
illness ALS (explanation below). From this moment on, he focused all his energy
on establishing a revolutionary healthcare initiative, called PatientsLikeMe.
The video was filmed in October 2009 and lasts approximately 17 minutes.
Fiona and Frank asked us to keep our summary short
and sweet. Well, I’ll try. When Jamie’s brother Steven was diagnosed with ALS,
the whole family felt alone with all their questions in relation to this
disease. The conversations with the doctors weren’t really satisfying – the
Heywoods wanted to get first-hand information. For this reason, Jamie founded
together with his youngest brother Benjamin and their friend Jeff Cole PatientsLikeMe, a website comparable to
a community in which patients with all kind of diseases share their stories,
statuses and data. The founders describe it as ‘a health data-sharing platform
that […] can transform the way patients manage their own conditions, change the
way industry conducts research and improve patient care.’
Well, let’s have a look at some useful terms:
ALS
ALS is an acronym for Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis. ALS is a motor neuron disease which leads to a progressive
degeneration of nerve cells that control muscle movements. The disease
eventually weakens all of the body’s muscles, including the muscles humans need
to breathe, until they become paralyzed. For this reason, most people with ALS
die of respiratory failure.
Some collocations are ALS patient, ALS association
and of course ALS Ice Bucket Challenge ;)
Terminal disease
A terminal disease is a disease that always leads
to death. It’s lethal. ALS is an example for a terminal disease.
This term was used in the description of Jamie
Heywood:
When MIT-trained mechanical engineer Jamie Heywood
discovered that his younger brother was diagnosed with the terminal illness
ALS, […].
Stem cell transplant/Bone marrow transplant
A stem cell transplant, also known as bone marrow
transplant, is a medical procedure in which healthy stem cells are infused into
the human body in order to replace damaged or diseased ones. Transplant can
either be gained from your own body or from a donor’s body. Jamie Heywood
donated some of his stem cells for his brother.
Collocations: Stem cell transplant recipient, stem
cell transplant donor
I really admire the spirit of this family and I
think all of us should be inspired by this positive thinking from time to time.
When Steven was diagnosed with ALS they didn’t give up. On the contrary, they
started to search ways to make Steven’s live better and to help him and other
ALS patients. Today, PatientsLikeMe is a huge community with 45,000 members who
all profit from the initial idea. That’s a great success. And even though
Steven passed away in 2006, I am really happy that the idea of his brothers and
friends still helps many patients all over the world by bringing them together
and helping them to build each other up.
When it comes to presentation techniques, I
especially liked the introduction. The speaker starts by telling the audience
the story of his brother. That's catching – in a sad way of course – and
awakes the viewer’s interest. I also like the way Jamie gesticulates in order
to emphasize his words. Something I really enjoyed are the charts and pictures that are
included in the presentation. They are embedded very well and support the
presentation instead of disturbing it.
I am looking forward to reading your health blogs :)
