Aneesh Chopra, first CTO of the US, is speaking now.

He’s the first speaker wearing a tie. He mentions meeting The King of Hearts in India on a delegation with Gov. Mark Warner. The discussion is about lowering the costs of healthcare by bringing scale to the endeavor. The average heart surgeon could do 300 heart surgeries a year. The King of Hearts and his surgeon have lowered the costs and make profits while doing 30 surgeries a day.

Chopra asks if innovations at this price point capable of inspiring innovations in the U.S.?

He talks about research by his mentor at the University of Michigan. He mentions the CEO of GE announcing that GE will take a new approach to global connectivity called “reverse innovation.”

GE is looking at developing high quality imaging at price points that are affordable in the developing world yet still profitable. The price has decreased 85% while providing the quality of care. Chopra again asks if this will work in the US. GE is trying to do this he says.

He talks about helping lay out the innovation strategy for the Obama administration then goes on to talk about re-designing the GED curriculum through apprenticeships in trades. He says this program in Alexandria came to his attention while he was in the Virginia government under Gov. Kaine.

He talks about the challenge they gave in Virginia to the colleges and stakeholders to train a high school dropout to become a technology worker in six months. He mentions Microsoft and their IT Academy and how they talked to the GED programs to reconfigure their programs around technology. Corporations were asked to provide real-life case studies.

He said the first graduating class took place 12 months after the idea was devised. He also mentions the President wanting to engineer online courses that are learning labs to ensure every child has access to materials that benefits their learning style.

He mentions Dr. David Green in Baltimore next. David Green works with medical devices for the poor. He has helped reduce costs in cataract lenses while still making a profit, according to Chopra. One of Green’s more recent innovations is in the hearing aid industry. Green has used a tiered pricing system based on ability to pay.

He mentions the president’s challenge to build intelligent prosthetics so that a wounded veteran can still play the piano. (A recent 60 Minutes report I saw had some amazing prosthetics being tested on wounded vets.)

He mentions that people want to come together in a democratic construct but also as a problem solving situation as a family. He mentions healthcare, energy and other issues as reason to come together to make innovations.

Keep refreshing this post for updates on this session. We will let you know when we go to the next post. The live video stream can be found here.Official hashtags for Twitter are #tedxmid and #tedx.

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