The Pioneer Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation invited the BioBE Center to TEDMED 2011 to explore TEDMED’s Twenty Great Challenges of Health and Medicine.  BioBE has been assigned to gather information during the conference from TEDMED attendees about Challenge #10:  Stopping hospital infections – why is this problem so hard?

A highlight of the meeting included an inspired talk by Michael Graves on the design of patient rooms in health care facilities.  Having spent an extraordinary amount of time in health care facilities himself, Michael understands the value of designing spaces with the patient in mind.  He noted that as technology gets bigger, the patient room is getting smaller.  His work addresses how to design spaces and furniture that will reduce the probability of infection and increase the feeling of being at home.