"Ideas Worth Spreading" by MSIH rising second year student Chelsea Powell

We often speak of the “MSIH bubble.”  As medical students, we go to class, study, study some more, and then to mix things up, we study.  Since this becomes routine, it is sometimes easy for us to forget our role as contributors to a bustling hospital, as part of a large university, and as residents of a busy city.  This week, however, Beer Sheva could not forget about us, because it was an MSIH-led team that brought TEDxBGU to the city.

TED talks are a series of lectures that strive to share, according to their slogan, “ideas worth spreading.”  Speakers offer a unique approach to or proposal for a seemingly intractable problem.  I’ve been the beneficiary of many inspiring TED talks online, but I was naively ignorant of the effort that went into producing these lectures.  Now, having watched my classmates invest incredible amounts of time and energy into making TEDxBGU a reality, I have enormous respect for the process as well as the product.  From selecting speakers to obtaining a TED license, from running a rehearsal to conquering last-minute sound difficulties, these students balanced the pressures of medical school and TED planning like pros.  The debut of TEDxBGU went off without a hitch, and “ideas worth spreading” were spread.  Kol hakavod, MSIH TED Team, for a job well done!

This week’s TED talk was competing with other ideas being spread on another part of the BGU campus.  Dr. Harriet Mayanja-Kizza, the dean of Makerere University Medical School in Uganda, gave a lunch talk to medical students prior to her commencement speech at graduation.  Dr. Mayanja-Kizza’s presentation was part of the MSIH global health forum, held several times each month with speakers hailing from all reaches of the earth.  This year we have discussed the ethical implications of medical volunteer efforts abroad, heard about the challenges of a professor’s post-earthquake visit to Nepal, and sparred over the most effective ways to direct economic aid to developing countries. 


Although TED might have stolen the limelight this week, ideas worth spreading consistently permeate the air here at MSIH.

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