Frequently Asked Questions

TEDMED is a community of accomplished doers and thinkers who are passionate about the future of health and medicine.

While many of our Delegates are from the worlds of health and medicine, many are also from science, technology, business, government, religion, law, military, media, the arts and education, among many other fields. Our mission is to curate a talented and diverse group of Delegates who take a leadership approach in their lives and want to contribute to a healthier future.
 
It is this invigorating, unconventional mix of perspectives that gives TEDMED its ability to foster nonstop intellectual cross–pollination of news, views and ideas.

TEDMED welcomes participation from a broad cross-section of society, both from within and outside the fields of medicine and technology. If you are passionate about creating a healthier world, we encourage you to apply to attend TEDMED 2018 and embark on an amazing journey of possibilities.

All Delegates apply to attend TEDMED, which are reviewed by TEDMED staff to ensure that the community represents a broad range of people from across health and medicine.

All applications are reviewed and answered within 14 business days.

Click here to apply.

We review each application to ensure that we have participation from a broad cross-section of society, both from within and outside the fields of medicine and technology. TEDMED creates an environment to foster unexpected collaborations between individuals in different fields. The application process allows us to assemble a multi-disciplinary and talented delegation.

Please contact [email protected].

Attendance is by application or invitation. Applications are reviewed by our admissions team, with guidelines established by our advisors from corporations, foundations, medical institutions, and government agencies.

Yes. If, based on your application, we believe that you can contribute to the TEDMED event, but if your application is not immediately approved (because of space limitations or an excess of previously approved applications in your particular field), we will place you on our Waiting List. We will make every effort to find you a spot at the event, and will notify you immediately if we can do so.

No. We review applications and grant acceptances on a rolling basis. This means that the earlier you apply, the greater the probability of acceptance, as fewer individuals will have been accepted with similar credentials. 

Yes. If you would rather not use a credit card, we can send you an invoice. If you prefer this option, please contact us at [email protected] for more information.

The TEDMED Front Line Scholarship Program offers Partial Scholarships for those individuals who would greatly benefit from attending, but who may need financial assistance to do so. The partial scholarship offsets a portion of the registration fee ~ excluding travel and accommodations. Click here for more information about the Front Line Scholarship Program. 

All videos on this website are the property of and copyrighted by TEDMED, LLC, a nonprofit wholly owned by The TEDMED Foundation, a 501(c) Public Charity. TEDMED makes all videos available, free, to encourage medical innovation, and to keep the conversation started at the event continuing throughout the year.

Yes, we encourage you to share TEDMED videos freely, as long as they are not used for commercial purposes. We believe that the topics and ideas discussed at TEDMED are too important to be discussed only once a year. However, we do prohibit any commercial use of copyrighted TEDMED media.

No. While we want TEDMED talks to be widely viewed, we do ask viewers to respect our copyright and the work of our speakers. Therefore, we ask that you not modify or distort the TEDMED videos in any way.

No, not all talks from TEDMED events are posted as videos on our website.

Any photos taken by TEDMED staff at any TEDMED event may be used to promote the event and community in a variety of ways, such as on our website or in promotional materials. 

To obtain permission, please contact us at [email protected].

During the TEDMED event, we stream all sessions from the TEDMED Stage, to locations around the world.

Viewers program their part of this once-a-year global event by selecting the most relevant sessions that are of particular importance to their audience. Live simulcast and time-delayed (on demand) viewing capabilities of all sessions give viewers maximum flexibility on scheduling during the 3 days and the following 2 days. Our mobile app can also be used by TEDMED Live Viewers to bring the audiences together online.

When hosting a TEDMED Live simulcast we expect and encourage each viewer to foster conversations and discussions about the TEDMED talks among its audience. This may even include involving your own subject matter experts to facilitate further discussion about the content delivered from the TEDMED stage.

However, in order to use the TEDMED Live logo and content, your gathering should be centered around the TEDMED simulcast content as the focal point. Independent speakers delivering content or talks unapproved by TEDMED is prohibited.

No. TEDx events are mini TED-style, self-directed, one-day programs that occur at various times and places around the world. TEDx events must feature speakers that address a variety of topics and not a single subject. TEDMED is a once a year, 3 day event focused exclusively on health and medicine.
 
Affiliates can choose to participate by watching a live video stream or by watching our on-demand stream. This way, Affiliates can watch as TEDMED happens, or afterwards, through the weekend following the TEDMED event.

Delegates typically pay an event fee of $4,950 per person to attend the TEDMED event. The TEDMED Live simulcast program offers an unparalleled opportunity for your constituents to see, hear and participate directly in an exciting multi-disciplinary dialog about health and medicine – live, at no charge, and without having to travel. There is no other experience in which your staff, team, faculty or students can experience the dazzling interplay of such varied minds, including Nobel Prize-winning scientists, the world’s most respected doctors and researchers, brilliant technology innovators and world-class artists.

Thanks to support from our Partners, TEDMEDLive is available worldwide and free to medical schools, teaching hospitals, research institutions and health-focused government agencies.

At this time, no application deadline has been established for TEDMED Live 2018.

No. In addition to experiencing the TEDMED sessions in high definition, associates are encouraged to engage in conversations during breaks and communicate with other audiences online via social media with #TEDMED. In some cases, TEDMED Live Gatherings may even be asked to interact directly with the stage. Additionally, the conversations that happen off stage are just as important as what you experience from the stage.
 
When hosting a TEDMED Live simulcast, we expect and encourage each affiliate to foster conversations and discussions about the TEDMED talks among its audience. This may include involving your own subject matter experts to facilitate further discussion about the content delivered from the TEDMED stage. However, in order to use the TEDMED Live logo and content, your gathering should be centered around the TEDMED simulcast content as the focal point. Independent speakers delivering content or talks unapproved by TEDMED is prohibited

Each TEDMED Live viewer is encouraged to create its own program guide. We will provide you with the speaker line-up for each TEDMED session and biographies for each of the speakers. A few weeks before the event, we’ll publish the final schedule for sessions and speakers. This session data will also be available online and through TEDMED Connect, TEDMED’s event app.

The final stage program will be released a few months prior to the event. We encourage you to sign up for our email newsletter and connecting with us over Twitter, Facebook and/or Google + to stay informed as speakers are announced, and to receive the final program as soon as it becomes available. You can sign up at the bottom of the home page at TEDMED.com or directly, here.

Please refer to the previous question for more information. We encourage you to think of TEDMED more as an opportunity to inspire your audience about the possibilities in health and medicine and less as a channel for listening to any particular speaker or topic. Each TEDMED speaker is individually powerful. Yet, in unison with other session presentations, individual talks become far more poignant. For this reason, we strongly recommend that each 90-minute session be experienced in its entirety.

Your institution can simulcast as much – or as little – of TEDMED as you choose. For example, you might organize a one-day event with two or three 90-minute sessions (each session features five to seven speakers). Institutions that create a TEDMED Live event for at least one day using an auditorium-style format are permitted to offer free access to all TEDMED sessions via individual laptops and tablets. 

When hosting a TEDMED Live simulcast we expect and encourage each affiliate to foster conversations and discussions about the TEDMED talks among its audience. This may even include involving your own subject matter experts to facilitate further discussion about the content delivered from the TEDMED stage. However, in order to use the TEDMED Live logo and content, your gathering should be centered around the TEDMED simulcast content as the focal point. Independent speakers delivering content or talks unapproved by TEDMED is prohibited.

Yes, TEDMED Live is available around the world. For now, it is only transmitted in English.

To accommodate various time zones and scheduling preferences, viewers also have the option to experience all of the TEDMED sessions on demand. This allows you to show an entire session as it happened on stage, but at a time of your choosing. Each session will be available to view on demand shortly after it has taken place. So, for example, you might select the Wednesday morning session and show it at your location on Thursday morning - or Thursday evening. It depends on what is most convenient for your local TEDMED Live audience. 

Institutions that organize a TEDMED Live event (using either real-time or on-demand video streaming from both of the locations) for at least one day in an auditorium-style format are then permitted to offer desktop computer access to all TEDMED sessions.

    

The technical requirements for TEDMED Live 2016 will be available closer to the event. In the meantime, you can reference the requirements for TEDMED Live 2015:

Viewers needed a minimum of 1 Mbps (1000 kbps) for SD or 3 Mbps (3000 kbps) for HD through a wired Internet connection and a large display screen/monitor suitable for the size of your auditorium or event room.

PC/Mac Requirements:

• The latest version of Chrome, Firefox or Safari
• The latest version of Flash
• Display: 1280x720 (720p)
• 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster (Mac) or 2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or faster (PC) processor
• At least 256MB (Mac) or 512MB (PC) of RAM
• 64MB or greater video card
• Connection to a dedicated Ethernet line with at least 1 Mbps download bandwidth for SD or 3 Mbps for HD

Mobile Requirements:

• Current iOS device,
  
• Current Android phone or tablet with a high level of desktop Flash support, or
  
• Current Windows Tablet (NOTE: At this time we do not support Windows Phone playback.)

We recommend you use Chrome, Firefox and Safari, but not Internet Explorer. It is recommended that you update your browser to the latest version for the best results.

Browser	Operating System	Download Location
Chrome	Windows, MacOS	www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/
Firefox	Windows, MacOS	http://www.firefox.com/
Safari	MacOS	http://www.apple.com/safari

You will have a couple of opportunities to test your viewing before the event. We normally run one test 2 weeks prior to the kickoff of TEDMED, and then again the day before the event starts. We will send you instructions and links that will enable you to test your system for both live simulcast and on demand viewing.

TEDMED will send you a password a few days prior to the event that will allow you to connect to the live simulcast and on demand viewing.

A preliminary TEDMED 2016 schedule will be available much closer to the event.

Please send an email to [email protected]

The TEDMED Front Line Scholarship Program offers Full and Partial Scholarships to deserving applicants. Full Scholarships are awarded to our Research Scholars who help us throughout the year, leading up to our event. In exchange, we cover their registration fee, in full. Partial Scholarships help to offset the registration fee, by reducing the balance to $2,475 (from $4,950). Partial Scholars participate fully at the event, playing a vital role in our community. 

The TEDMED Front Line Scholarship Program offers Full and Partial Scholarships to deserving applicants. Full Scholarships for 2018 cannot be applied for - these are provided via invitation only. We will open up the application for partial scholarships closer to this year's event.

The TEDMED Front Line Scholarships are made possible through the generous support of our major Partners, TEDMED Patrons and TEDMED. For more information about our Partners, click here.

Anyone who is an innovator or leader or on the front lines of medicine, public service or research is eligible. This includes patients and journalists. It also includes experts from non-medical fields who are looking to apply their experience and knowledge to the world of health and medicine.

TEDMED encourages innovators and leaders on the front lines of health and medicine to apply.
For example:

• Nurses and doctors (specialists of all kinds; family medicine and GPs; RNs and LPNs; etc.)
• First responders (firefighters, EMTs, ambulance drivers, paramedics, etc., whether paid or volunteer; medical social workers; police; etc.)
• Military personnel (military doctors, nurses and medics; U.S. Defense Dept. health program directors and staff; VA medical and support staff; etc.)
• Hospital and urgent care staff (non-profit and for-profit hospital administrators, staff, etc.)
• Mental health professionals (psychiatrists and psychologists; mental health counselors; mental health clinic directors; clergy with counseling responsibilities and programs; etc.)
• Healthcare and fitness providers and therapists (physical therapists; rehab counselors and therapists; occupational therapists; chiropractors; audiologists; speech therapists; dentists and dental personnel; dieticians and nutritionists; home health aides; respiratory therapists; athletic coaches and trainers; industrial hygienists; etc.)
• Health-oriented government personnel (federal, state and county health officials; health-related agency and policy directors and staff; public policy experts and analysts; public health administrators; etc.)
• Health-related technology experts (computer programmers and Web developers; prosthetics & robotics engineers and developers; clinical technologists; biomedical engineers; etc.)
• Patients and supporters (cancer and heart attack survivors; patient counselors; patient advocates; etc.)
• Health-oriented educators and students (university, college and professional school administrators and professors; medical students; public policy and health policy students; etc.)
• Health-related knowledge workers (academic and industrial medical and scientific researchers; environmental health specialists; health science journalists, editors and publishers; health information specialists; health science librarians; etc.)
• Non-profit organization leaders and staff (NGO leaders and personnel; community program directors; philanthropic workers and leaders; etc.)
• Innovators and leaders of for-profit companies with a strongly health focused public service mission (Note: the applicant’s job and responsibilities must be directly related to health and medicine).

The TEDMED Admissions Team.

Scholarships are awarded on the basis of three factors:
(a) professional merit;
(b) financial need; and
(c) creating a multi-disciplinary TEDMED community that represents as many different fields as possible.

Yes. TEDMED awards scholarships to men and women of all ages, races, backgrounds and beliefs, and to individuals with disabilities or special needs.

The TEDMED Admissions Team will review each application and typically get back to the applicant within 2 weeks with an acceptance or with follow-up questions. We do our best to reply to applicants quickly so that front-line medical personnel will have sufficient time to arrange for their responsibilities to be covered by colleagues while they attend the event.

Yes. However, with limited scholarship funding, we must accommodate first time Front Line Scholar applicants.

Names and affiliations of applicants are not published unless the applicant is accepted and receives a scholarship to attend TEDMED. TEDMED is committed to transparency so that the community can see how scholarship funds are used.

No. Scholarships are not transferable.

TEDMED will award as many scholarships as possible until the entire Scholarship fund has been depleted. The final number of Scholars who receive financial support will depend on how many Full and Partial Scholarships have been awarded.

Public employees are urged to check with their own agency or department for guidelines.

TEDMED is the independent health and medicine nonprofit edition of the world-famous TED conference, dedicated to “ideas worth spreading.” TED Talks have been viewed online over two billion times around the world.

Created by TED’s founder, TEDMED convenes and curates extraordinary people and ideas from all disciplines both inside and outside of medicine in pursuit of unexpected connections that accelerate innovation in health and medicine. Best known for our annual event, TEDMED is a year-round global community

TEDMED bridges the gap between science and the public by finding and sharing stories that inform, inspire, engage and provoke action across a broad, passionate community both inside and outside of health and medicine. TEDMED values inclusiveness, multi-disciplinary collaboration and diversity in its mission to catalyze a healthier world.

Our annual event brings the world together to focus on what’s new and important in health and medicine. We forge partnerships with industry leaders, medical research institutions, think tanks, government agencies and foundations, to ensure that cutting-edge biomedical thinking is shared across disciplines and made accessible to the public at large.

Year-round, TEDMED engages a community of dedicated change-makers in dynamic conversations through social media, TEDMED Talks and a variety of programmatic efforts involving speakers, start-ups and everyday breakthroughs.

You can sign up for our mailing list through the footer at www.TEDMED.com, follow us on Twitter @TEDMED, "Like" us on Facebook, check out our Blog, and follow us on Google+.

First, join the TEDMED community by creating a member profile

Next, join the discussion on issues you care about in our Great Challenges Program. TEDMED is about sharing ideas and perspectives from passionate people all over the globe who represent many different disciplines, both medical and non-medical. The Great Challenges Program keeps the conversation going all year long.

We welcome creative and talented people who want to lend their time and skills to help make TEDMED a success. If you're interested in collaborating with us, feel free to contact us.

Here are a couple of areas where your skills would be helpful:

• Speaker Coaching: We are committed to making all talks on the TEDMED stage world-class. If you are an experienced speaker or speechwriter, you could help our speakers polish their talks.
• Speaker Presentation Materials: If you are a talented designer and/or illustrator with experience in bringing presentations to life, you could help with our speaker presentation materials. 

TEDMED partners with companies that have similar goals in advancing health and medicine through innovation, and who believe that the TEDMED platform can be an important vehicle to further their objectives in this area. If your company or organization is interested in partnering with TEDMED, please send us an email at [email protected].

No. TEDMED is a licensee of TED that is focused on health and medicine. Though the management team of TEDMED collaborates with TED, TEDMED is an independent nonprofit.

Yes, wholly owned by The TEDMED Foundation, a 501(c)3 Public Charity.

TEDMED is a nonprofit wholly owned by The TEDMED Foundation, a 501(c)3 Public Charity.

Please use our Speaker Nomination Form or Hive Nomination Form. Provide as much information as you can. The TEDMED team will use this form as they review the nomination.
 

Yes.  Please fill out as much information as you can!

Yes.

Yes. 

Though being a TEDMED Partner has many benefits, becoming a TEDMED speaker or Hive innovator is not one of them. For more about partnering with TEDMED, please send us an email at [email protected].

Please only submit one nomination. Rest assured we do review and consider every nomination that comes our way; submitting multiples won’t help your case.

We accept nominations year-round. Typically, we aim to finalize the program about six months ahead of the event.

Due to the volume of nominations that we receive, we regret that we cannot correspond with everyone who submits a nomination. However, we review and consider every nomination, and will contact you if we need more information.  

At TEDMED, everyone is part of the same program; there are no breakout sessions or multiple tracks, no keynotes, and very rarely are there panels.

Like TED, TEDMED does not pay speakers, nor do we pay anyone selected for The Hive. However, there are many benefits to speaking at TEDMED. When you take the stage at TEDMED, you address an extraordinary gathering of leaders and innovators in many different fields – all in one place. Your appearance will be seen around the world via TEDMEDLive, our remote simulcast. And after the live event, a broadcast-quality video of your talk will be posted on TEDMED.com, where millions can view it for many years to come.