Beginning November 18, leaders from across science and medicine will take the stage at TEDMED 2015, and several speakers with strong connections to BWH will be among them. These include Thomas H. Lee, MD, a practicing internist/cardiologist at BWH and an “empathic health care strategist”; Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, who was a physician at BWH prior to being appointed U.S. Surgeon General last year; Sangeeta Bhatia, MD, PhD, a biomedical engineer at BWH and MIT; and Suzie Brown, MD, MS, a former intern and resident in internal medicine at BWH.

According to TEDMED, Lee will describe his quest to define empathy as a business asset and patient suffering as an outcome. Lee has previously written about suffering, labeling it as “The Word That Shall Not Be Spoken,” in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Murthy, who was confirmed as the nation’s 19th surgeon general in 2014, will discuss hopeful health innovations at the community level learned from his national listening tour.

Bhatia, who received the Lemelson-MIT Prize in 2014, will share how she led a multidisciplinary lab to develop an unusual breakthrough in cancer diagnostics.

Brown, a cardiologist and singer-songwriter, will give a vulnerable, evocative performance that will tug at the heartstrings. She will be accompanied by her husband, Scot Sax.

Members of the BWHC community are invited to tune in to this year’s TEDMED Live program, which will feature sessions on technological advances in health and medicine, health care system challenges, the changing culture of health and more. For details on how to access the video, please visit BWH PikeNotes.