full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Thomas Goetz: It's time to redesign medical data
Unscramble the Blue Letters
One part of mcnidiee, though, has feacd the problem of behavior change pttery well, and that's dentistry. Dentistry might seem — and I think it is — many dentists would have to adkwonclege it's somewhat of a mundane backwater of medicine. Not a lot of cool, sexy stuff hapnneipg in dentistry. But they have really taken this problem of behavior change and solved it. It's the one great preventive health success we have in our health care system. plpoee brush and floss their teeth. They don't do it as much as they should, but they do it.
So I'm going to talk about one experiment that a few dentists in Connecticut cooked up about 30 years ago. So this is an old experiment, but it's a really good one, because it was very simple, so it's an easy story to tell. So these Connecticut dentists decided that they wanted to get people to brush their teeth and floss their teeth more often, and they were going to use one variable: they wanted to scare them. They wtaned to tell them how bad it would be if they didn't brush and floss their teeth. They had a big ptniaet population. They divided them up into two groups. They had a low-fear popluiaotn, where they basically gave them a 13-minute presentation, all based in science, but told them that, if you didn't bsurh and flsos your teeth, you could get gum disease. If you get gum disease, you will lose your teeth, but you'll get dentures, and it won't be that bad. So that was the low-fear group. The high-fear guorp, they laid it on really thcik. They showed bloody gums. They showed puss oozing out from between their teeth. They told them that their tteeh were going to fall out. They said that they could have infections that would spread from their jaws to other parts of their bodies, and ultimately, yes, they would lose their teeth. They would get druntees, and if you got dentures, you weren't going to be able to eat corn-on-the-cob, you weren't going to be able to eat apples, you weren't going to be able to eat steak. You'll eat mush for the rest of your life. So go brush and floss your teeth. That was the message. That was the erimpeenxt.
Open Cloze
One part of ________, though, has _____ the problem of behavior change ______ well, and that's dentistry. Dentistry might seem — and I think it is — many dentists would have to ___________ it's somewhat of a mundane backwater of medicine. Not a lot of cool, sexy stuff _________ in dentistry. But they have really taken this problem of behavior change and solved it. It's the one great preventive health success we have in our health care system. ______ brush and floss their teeth. They don't do it as much as they should, but they do it.
So I'm going to talk about one experiment that a few dentists in Connecticut cooked up about 30 years ago. So this is an old experiment, but it's a really good one, because it was very simple, so it's an easy story to tell. So these Connecticut dentists decided that they wanted to get people to brush their teeth and floss their teeth more often, and they were going to use one variable: they wanted to scare them. They ______ to tell them how bad it would be if they didn't brush and floss their teeth. They had a big _______ population. They divided them up into two groups. They had a low-fear __________, where they basically gave them a 13-minute presentation, all based in science, but told them that, if you didn't _____ and _____ your teeth, you could get gum disease. If you get gum disease, you will lose your teeth, but you'll get dentures, and it won't be that bad. So that was the low-fear group. The high-fear _____, they laid it on really _____. They showed bloody gums. They showed puss oozing out from between their teeth. They told them that their _____ were going to fall out. They said that they could have infections that would spread from their jaws to other parts of their bodies, and ultimately, yes, they would lose their teeth. They would get ________, and if you got dentures, you weren't going to be able to eat corn-on-the-cob, you weren't going to be able to eat apples, you weren't going to be able to eat steak. You'll eat mush for the rest of your life. So go brush and floss your teeth. That was the message. That was the __________.
Solution
- faced
- dentures
- people
- happening
- brush
- patient
- wanted
- pretty
- thick
- floss
- medicine
- acknowledge
- population
- experiment
- teeth
- group
Original Text
One part of medicine, though, has faced the problem of behavior change pretty well, and that's dentistry. Dentistry might seem — and I think it is — many dentists would have to acknowledge it's somewhat of a mundane backwater of medicine. Not a lot of cool, sexy stuff happening in dentistry. But they have really taken this problem of behavior change and solved it. It's the one great preventive health success we have in our health care system. People brush and floss their teeth. They don't do it as much as they should, but they do it.
So I'm going to talk about one experiment that a few dentists in Connecticut cooked up about 30 years ago. So this is an old experiment, but it's a really good one, because it was very simple, so it's an easy story to tell. So these Connecticut dentists decided that they wanted to get people to brush their teeth and floss their teeth more often, and they were going to use one variable: they wanted to scare them. They wanted to tell them how bad it would be if they didn't brush and floss their teeth. They had a big patient population. They divided them up into two groups. They had a low-fear population, where they basically gave them a 13-minute presentation, all based in science, but told them that, if you didn't brush and floss your teeth, you could get gum disease. If you get gum disease, you will lose your teeth, but you'll get dentures, and it won't be that bad. So that was the low-fear group. The high-fear group, they laid it on really thick. They showed bloody gums. They showed puss oozing out from between their teeth. They told them that their teeth were going to fall out. They said that they could have infections that would spread from their jaws to other parts of their bodies, and ultimately, yes, they would lose their teeth. They would get dentures, and if you got dentures, you weren't going to be able to eat corn-on-the-cob, you weren't going to be able to eat apples, you weren't going to be able to eat steak. You'll eat mush for the rest of your life. So go brush and floss your teeth. That was the message. That was the experiment.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| behavior change |
5 |
| feedback loop |
5 |
| health information |
4 |
| people understand |
3 |
| general blood |
3 |
| blood work |
3 |
| public health |
2 |
| health care |
2 |
| amazing notion |
2 |
| personalized information |
2 |
| speed limit |
2 |
| pharmaceutical ad |
2 |
| god forbid |
2 |
| lab test |
2 |
| test results |
2 |
| crp test |
2 |
| psa test |
2 |
| wired magazine |
2 |
| million dollars |
2 |
| incredibly powerful |
2 |
| ordinary people |
2 |
ngrams of length 3
| collocation |
frequency |
| general blood work |
3 |
Important Words
- acknowledge
- apples
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- bad
- based
- basically
- behavior
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- bloody
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- connecticut
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- dentistry
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- infections
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- life
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- lot
- medicine
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- mundane
- mush
- oozing
- part
- parts
- patient
- people
- population
- presentation
- pretty
- preventive
- problem
- puss
- rest
- scare
- science
- sexy
- showed
- simple
- solved
- spread
- steak
- story
- stuff
- success
- system
- talk
- teeth
- thick
- told
- ultimately
- wanted
- years