Future Patient/Future Doctor

Larry Smarr is defining the future of healthcare. As he, a world-renowned computer scientist and Michael Kurisu, the much-in-demand osteopathic physician at UC San Diego demonstrate, the balance of power between patients and doctors will change as technology gives patients the tools to know more about their own bodies. And the more informed they become, the more likely they will work with their doctors to develop treatment and prevention plans that are appropriate for them. Using Smarr as a case study, this patient and doctor show the benefits of hands-on, systems-based thinking in treating sciatica and self-diagnosing Crohn’s disease. Kurisu then takes these concepts to Project Apollo, a group of highly educated and motivated patients who call themselves “Little Larry’s” as they use the same techniques to address and treat their own health problems. All of this pointing to what theologian and physician Albert Schweitzer envisioned in the last century, “the doctor of the future will be one self.” Smarr and Kurisu are showing us how.

Watch Future Patient/Future Doctor – Larry Smarr, PhD & Michael Kurisu, DO .

Larry Smarr, Gretchen Rubin Get into Health(care) & Happiness

Our presentations of “The Atlantic Meets the Pacific” forum continue into the New Year, but first we’re wrapping up 2012 with two stellar presentations from the three-day forum held at UC San Diego in October.

Premiering tonight (Dec. 17) at 9pm (and online now) is “The Human Laboratory: One Researcher’s Quest to Personalize Medicine,” a fascinating conversation between Calit2 director Larry Smarr, the subject of a recent piece in “The Atlantic,” and author Mark Bowden, who wrote the screenplay for Katherine Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty” and riveting works of non-fiction like “Black Hawk Down.” In this program, Smarr and Bowden talk about Smarr’s determination to understand everything about his own body, and how that kind of knowledge will become standard in the future of healthcare.

And what better to way to complete the year than with a look at the science and philosophy of happiness with none other than Gretchen Rubin, author of the bestseller “The Happiness Project.” In “Don’t Worry, Be Happy Now: The Science and Philosophy of the Happiness Movement,” Rubin chats with James Fallows, National Correspondent for The Atlantic, about finding contentment in everyday life. That program premieres Dec. 28 at 7pm, but you can start your happy journey early by watching it online now.