GREAT CHALLENGES

This summer, the latest iteration of The Great Challenges Program came to a close, with our most recent Google+ Hangout. As we prepare for TEDMED 2015, we're also planning the most effective way to use the Great Challenges platform to further knowledge, discussion, and understanding in the most pressing issues facing health and medicine. In the meanwhile, please enjoy our Hangouts from previous years and keep your eyes out for an announcent with more details.

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About the Program

The Great Challenges of Health and Medicine are complex, persistent problems impacting millions of lives, and affecting the well-being of all of America – beginning with patients, and extending to families and citizens everywhere. These knotty problems do not have “one-size-fits-all” solutions because they stem from broad, interlocking social, economic and psychological sources as well as from medical or scientific triggers.

The mission of TEDMED’s Great Challenges Program is not to solve these complex problems but rather to curate unbiased and broadly inclusive dialogs around these challenges, incorporating thoughtful, multi-disciplinary perspectives. TEDMED believes that when the world achieves a broad-based understanding of any given challenge, it will then be in position to take truly effective action.

LIve Events On Google+

The Great Challenges Program conducts a lively national dialogue on each of the Challenges, chosen by the TEDMED community, through its website and live events. Each challenge has a team of leaders and experts, who bring passionate and thoughtful perspectives to each conversation. This conversation is lead primarily through a series of live event broadcasts, and on TEDMED.com, on Facebook, on Google+, and on Twitter (use #GreatChallenges).

Live events


To encourage broad conversation for each challenge, we host live online discussions featuring a diverse, interdisciplinary group of experts. These experts provide insights into key issues related to the topic, and answer questions from the community via Google+, Twitter (#GreatChallenges), and Facebook. The goal is to facilitate conversations that will broaden the understanding of each challenge.

Below, browse our archived video from these weekly events.