[Music]
it was a Thursday afternoon when my best
friend told me that he was gonna put me
on his will next to his parents the day
before he wanted to surgery Wolfe felt
this feeling that the knot in your
throat the hope that things will turn
okay the feel of uncertainty I was
feeling what millions feel every day for
the first time in my life when faced
with that daunting challenge in
healthcare you see my best friend Yuri
brother from another mother relatively
healthy young man loved sailing loved
surfing and just a few years earlier we
had started our own technology company
in health care but turns out Yuri was
born with a rare but very serious
genetic defect he was born with a hole
in his heart I just want to take a
moment first and foremost how an
incredible thing this is that this was
diagnosed in the first place this
genetic defect that if it’s not treated
if it’s not found out leads to death by
a heart attack in your mid-40s I mean
the guy was a dead man walking he was at
his primary care doctor and she heard a
very faint murmur in his heart they say
you know what I feel a lot better if you
just got a cat scan all that code will
follow up it’s probably nothing they
diagnose the hole immediately scheduled
for surgery and the only reason why he
is around today is because of that
miracle is because the incredible thing
that happens in healthcare today by the
way the surgery itself is even crazier
the medical device that’s actually used
to fix this hole is this incredible hand
woman thing inspired by the weaving
techniques by the Aboriginal Bolivian
women it’s this beautiful combination of
art and science that looks like this
it’s amazing and healthcare does things
like this every single day you see we
came a long way just about 100 years ago
we thought injecting pig’s blood to pee
was a relatively good idea it’s not and
fast-forward that to today we’re now
genetically engineering pigs to produce
human blood to combat blood shortages
that’s a freakin miracle but as health
care became more competent it became
more complex and unfortunately
complexity leads to errors every year
over 250,000 people die in the United
States because of a preventable medical
error and I want to underline
preventable these are things we know not
to do these are things like we gave you
the wrong drug these are things like we
forgot to wash our hands and you’ve got
an infection these are things like you
fell from your bed and yes believe it or
not falling from your bed is considered
a medical error that hospitals can take
real precautions against you see in
today’s healthcare if it takes a village
to raise a child it takes a whole
Hospital to make you feel better you see
my co-founder and I we’ve been frequent
flyers of healthcare over the past
decade I mean we’ve had a front row seat
so the seismic changes that are
happening to our hospitals we know what
it looks like from the inside that’s why
when we found out that he needed the
surgery we spent more time selecting
this hospital than with it selecting a
surgeon now most people are surprised
when I tell them about this because I
mean of course it matters who does your
surgery and by the way for some folks if
you live in a rural community there
might just be one hospital that you go
to in a 500 mile radius of course I
recognize all of that but for most
Americans we’ve had unprecedented access
to health care never before seen in
history and to this date I’m always
blown away by how little choosing
happens in health care health grades did
this study in 2014 and they want to find
out what were the biggest factors that
people looked into in terms of selecting
where they receive care the number one
determining factor is convenience of
location number two is the friendliness
of the office staff and when we care
about things like the marble floors and
the soothing fountain and the bedside
manners then whether you can die from
cardiac arrest during the recovery and
you think I’m kidding you the same study
looked at 33 hospitals in Atlanta and
found that one of those hospitals you
were 17 times more likely to die because
of a heart attack during your recovery
this is crazy now compare that to the
hospital that we chose which was
University of Chicago Medical Center
they have a complex algorithm running in
their electronic medical records to
predict days in advance which one of
their patients are going to get a heart
attack and they take precautions you see
new Chicago Medical Center takes patient
safety very very seriously and as a
matter of fact cardiac correct was just
one of the many factors we looked into
before we slide to this hospital but you
see what we did is not all that
different than what we all do every day
which brings me to baby banana
toothbrushes that’s a good weird turn
but I think there’s nothing more special
than this baby better than a toothbrush
to tell us that we really needs to
happen more in healthcare you see what’s
amazing about this baby banana
toothbrush is that our Amazon it’s been
reviewed five thousand nine hundred and
thirty-eight times people took the time
to write how amazing these are
paragraphs by the way you gotta go and
and read this up people craziness well
you see what’s incredible about this
toothbrush is that it’s virtually
impossible to choke on it you see in the
world of baby banana toothbrushes safety
cells and we have only one thing to
thank for enabling this baby toothbrush
and it’s you you made this company what
it is today
you chose this toothbrush over others
you see choice is a superpower I’m a
believer in free markets I believe that
if we select the things that we want to
win the world will be better but you see
with great power comes great
responsibility
if Southwest Airlines crashed 17
more than United you would care a little
less about the two free Czech languages
you get on the side I believe we have to
use this superpower it is my biggest pet
peeve today that hospitals don’t compete
on these metrics and by the way all of
this data is sitting right in front of
you
well not quite all this data is public
but you kinda have to know where to look
this is like burying the depths of the
Center for Medicaid Services or the
agency of Healthcare Research and
quality this is hard to get to but you
know because we looked URI had one of
the most boring surgeries of all time it
took exactly as long as the surgeon said
it would he recovered in exactly three
days and it was back in the office the
next Monday morning it was kind of
uneventful but you know what that’s what
we want out of health care this story
isn’t about what could have happened to
URI the story is about what we can all
do to fix health care so here’s what we
did we took all of that hard-to-find
data and put it into a super simple
website called USA Hospital Compare com
it is not perfect but you know what it
is a way for you to tell hospitals that
you care about this stuff and if you
tell them if you let them know that you
care if you choose hospitals based on
these safety metrics we will fix health
care so don’t wait for some complicated
reform don’t wait for some promise
legislation that’s gonna take decades to
count choose choose and together we can
all fix healthcare one toothbrush at a
time
[Applause]
it was a Thursday afternoon when my best
friend told me that he was gonna put me
on his will next to his parents the day
before he wanted to surgery Wolfe felt
this feeling that the knot in your
throat the hope that things will turn
okay the feel of uncertainty I was
feeling what millions feel every day for
the first time in my life when faced
with that daunting challenge in
healthcare you see my best friend Yuri
brother from another mother relatively
healthy young man loved sailing loved
surfing and just a few years earlier we
had started our own technology company
in health care but turns out Yuri was
born with a rare but very serious
genetic defect he was born with a hole
in his heart I just want to take a
moment first and foremost how an
incredible thing this is that this was
diagnosed in the first place this
genetic defect that if it’s not treated
if it’s not found out leads to death by
a heart attack in your mid-40s I mean
the guy was a dead man walking he was at
his primary care doctor and she heard a
very faint murmur in his heart they say
you know what I feel a lot better if you
just got a cat scan all that code will
follow up it’s probably nothing they
diagnose the hole immediately scheduled
for surgery and the only reason why he
is around today is because of that
miracle is because the incredible thing
that happens in healthcare today by the
way the surgery itself is even crazier
the medical device that’s actually used
to fix this hole is this incredible hand
woman thing inspired by the weaving
techniques by the Aboriginal Bolivian
women it’s this beautiful combination of
art and science that looks like this
it’s amazing and healthcare does things
like this every single day you see we
came a long way just about 100 years ago
we thought injecting pig’s blood to pee
was a relatively good idea it’s not and
fast-forward that to today we’re now
genetically engineering pigs to produce
human blood to combat blood shortages
that’s a freakin miracle but as health
care became more competent it became
more complex and unfortunately
complexity leads to errors every year
over 250,000 people die in the United
States because of a preventable medical
error and I want to underline
preventable these are things we know not
to do these are things like we gave you
the wrong drug these are things like we
forgot to wash our hands and you’ve got
an infection these are things like you
fell from your bed and yes believe it or
not falling from your bed is considered
a medical error that hospitals can take
real precautions against you see in
today’s healthcare if it takes a village
to raise a child it takes a whole
Hospital to make you feel better you see
my co-founder and I we’ve been frequent
flyers of healthcare over the past
decade I mean we’ve had a front row seat
so the seismic changes that are
happening to our hospitals we know what
it looks like from the inside that’s why
when we found out that he needed the
surgery we spent more time selecting
this hospital than with it selecting a
surgeon now most people are surprised
when I tell them about this because I
mean of course it matters who does your
surgery and by the way for some folks if
you live in a rural community there
might just be one hospital that you go
to in a 500 mile radius of course I
recognize all of that but for most
Americans we’ve had unprecedented access
to health care never before seen in
history and to this date I’m always
blown away by how little choosing
happens in health care health grades did
this study in 2014 and they want to find
out what were the biggest factors that
people looked into in terms of selecting
where they receive care the number one
determining factor is convenience of
location number two is the friendliness
of the office staff and when we care
about things like the marble floors and
the soothing fountain and the bedside
manners then whether you can die from
cardiac arrest during the recovery and
you think I’m kidding you the same study
looked at 33 hospitals in Atlanta and
found that one of those hospitals you
were 17 times more likely to die because
of a heart attack during your recovery
this is crazy now compare that to the
hospital that we chose which was
University of Chicago Medical Center
they have a complex algorithm running in
their electronic medical records to
predict days in advance which one of
their patients are going to get a heart
attack and they take precautions you see
new Chicago Medical Center takes patient
safety very very seriously and as a
matter of fact cardiac correct was just
one of the many factors we looked into
before we slide to this hospital but you
see what we did is not all that
different than what we all do every day
which brings me to baby banana
toothbrushes that’s a good weird turn
but I think there’s nothing more special
than this baby better than a toothbrush
to tell us that we really needs to
happen more in healthcare you see what’s
amazing about this baby banana
toothbrush is that our Amazon it’s been
reviewed five thousand nine hundred and
thirty-eight times people took the time
to write how amazing these are
paragraphs by the way you gotta go and
and read this up people craziness well
you see what’s incredible about this
toothbrush is that it’s virtually
impossible to choke on it you see in the
world of baby banana toothbrushes safety
cells and we have only one thing to
thank for enabling this baby toothbrush
and it’s you you made this company what
it is today
you chose this toothbrush over others
you see choice is a superpower I’m a
believer in free markets I believe that
if we select the things that we want to
win the world will be better but you see
with great power comes great
responsibility
if Southwest Airlines crashed 17
more than United you would care a little
less about the two free Czech languages
you get on the side I believe we have to
use this superpower it is my biggest pet
peeve today that hospitals don’t compete
on these metrics and by the way all of
this data is sitting right in front of
you
well not quite all this data is public
but you kinda have to know where to look
this is like burying the depths of the
Center for Medicaid Services or the
agency of Healthcare Research and
quality this is hard to get to but you
know because we looked URI had one of
the most boring surgeries of all time it
took exactly as long as the surgeon said
it would he recovered in exactly three
days and it was back in the office the
next Monday morning it was kind of
uneventful but you know what that’s what
we want out of health care this story
isn’t about what could have happened to
URI the story is about what we can all
do to fix health care so here’s what we
did we took all of that hard-to-find
data and put it into a super simple
website called USA Hospital Compare com
it is not perfect but you know what it
is a way for you to tell hospitals that
you care about this stuff and if you
tell them if you let them know that you
care if you choose hospitals based on
these safety metrics we will fix health
care so don’t wait for some complicated
reform don’t wait for some promise
legislation that’s gonna take decades to
count choose choose and together we can
all fix healthcare one toothbrush at a
time
[Applause]
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