Keynote Address: Making Medicine Meaningful

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, senior medical correspondent for CNN, practicing neurosurgeon, and assistant professor of neurosurgery, delivered the Keynote Address at the 42nd DIA Annual Meeting on Monday morning, stating that the ultimate goal of communicating medical topics is to "make the lives of people better, fuller, and longer."

Recounting his experiences in Iraq during the Gulf War, Southeast Asia during the tsunami, and most recently, in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, Gupta said he always asks, "Why does it matter to the millions of people who are watching?" To make health information relevant, he said, a medical communicator must work hard to translate health information into knowledge into contexts that people can use.

Currently, he is interested in the issues of childhood obesity in the United States and the way the media communicates changes to the U.S. Medicare system.