Health Care Design Intensive: A 4-Day Conference for Changing the Health Care System

Patch Adams, M.D. and the School for Designing a Society invite you to attend our four day health care system design conference, "Inside My Heart But Outside the Box: Thinking, to Change the Health Care Box"-- Oct. 11-14, Urbana, Illinois.

If you find the present health care system undesirable and unsustainable, and want tools, time, comradery and positive examples for how to change it--this event is for you!

The 'thinking outside the box' design intensive is a working conference: along with speaker presentations, we offer teaching sessions and small work groups. Our 10-person team (including Patch Adams) is present for the four days, working with participants in large and small group settings.

All stakeholders in health care are welcome. Nurses, doctors, patients, claims adjusters, moms, students, pre-meds, teachers... the intensive specifically addresses those people who want to figure out "what else could be done in a health care system??", and, "how do we make it happen??"

This is a participation-based educational intensive. Over the four days there will be presentations, workshops, group sessions, and a clown trip to the local nursing home!

Read participant responses to the 2005 intensive

Confirmed Speakers:

• Patch Adams, M.D.: "Gesundheit"--hospital project based on community & fun
• Jay Bhatt PCOM, OMSIV, past president of AMSA: re-designing med school entry admissions to 'give teeth' to values of compassion and service
• Stephanie Davies: Design Your Humor-Health Kit
• John Glick, M.D.: eliminating rank and hierarchy abuses
• Carl A. Hammershlag MD, CPAE: mental health without pills & with community
• Paul Glover: "Philahealthia": start your own health care co-op
• Carmen Landau: recent graduate ELAM (Cuban Medical School)
• Claudia Lennhoff: Champaign County Health Care Consumers
• Paula Murphy DC: model chiropractic practice
• Susan Parenti, DMA: Think Universally, Design Locally
• Neil Shulman MD: empowering patients:"What's in a doctor's bag?"
• Joel Thomas: US Health Care System for Activists
• Bowen White, M.D.: "Why normal isn't healthy"
• Robert Zieve MD: "Beyond the Medical Meltdown"

Location: Independent Media Center, in downtown Urbana, Illinois

Dates: October 11-14, 2007

Tuition: $500. Covers all sessions and some meals.

Financial Aid: Some need-based scholarships offered. Med students seeking support from their school may find helpful the Letter of Recommendation from Jay Bhatt, President of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA).

Questions? Need more information? Please contact Susan at
designintensive@patchadams.org or phone 217-344-1439

Resources: Here is the schedule. For some of the resources compiled for the 2006 Intensive, click here.

Spread the word: Print out a copy of the 2007 Health Care Intensive Poster (1.1MB pdf) and post it at your workplace or school!

There's more information at the School for Designing a Society's Health Care Intensive Resource Page.