“What Matters to Me” – a new vital sign | Jason Leitch | TEDxGlasgow

When a person is admitted to hospital, they will have their vital signs measured. Vital signs are the most important signs that tell clinical teams about a patient’s life-sustaining functions and are taken to help assess the health of a person and give clues to possible illnesses. One of the biggest challenges facing local and global healthcare delivery is an absence of compassion. The continual focus on improved technical cures and the next new machine or drug has been at the expense of simple care, empathy and understanding. If someone asked you “What matters to you?” how would you answer? Jason’s thought-provoking talk will consider this very question drawing on his own compassion and experience in the health service.

Jason Leitch is the National Clinical Director at the Scottish Government and an Honorary Professor at the University of Dundee. Chosen as the HFMA 2011 UK Clinician of the Year, he was previously a Quality Improvement Fellow sponsored by the Health Foundation at IHI, in Boston from 2005-06. Jason is now a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and a trustee of the Indian Rural Evangelical Fellowship which runs orphanages in south-east India. He has a doctorate from the University of Glasgow, an MPH from Harvard and is a fellow of the three Royal Colleges.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx