Speaker Links
- Personal
David Hale
Everything I n/ever wanted to know about myself I learned from my genome
Every time I visited a new doctor, I learned to put a line through the family medical history form and write "adopted." In 2009 I decided to give myself the closest surrogate possible: personal genomics testing. I knew it would give me information that would change my view of myself. I had no idea what it would take away - my heritage. Along the way I discovered a state, pulled by the strings of insurers, that blocked it's citizens from free and open access to their own genomic data. What began as a journey of medical discovery, became a clandestine, illegal quest for own my own genome. In the end what was taken away has been replaced by a deeper connection to who I am and an understanding of why I am a public servent.
About David Hale:
I'm a public servent who thinks he's an entrepreneur. My "startup" is Pillbox, an NIH/FDA open government initiative, hacking public health data and turning government into a platform for health innovation. The White House called it "a fantastic and game-changing idea."
I'm probably known these days as much for playing my ukulele as my work in government. I just got back from Medicine 2.0 where I performed an original song about patients' rights to access their health data.
My style is more storytelling than presentation and I do a lot of storytelling. My favorite previous petcha-kutcha presentation was an examination of the meaning of "social justice" by translating the phrase into Japanese and then analyzing it as a four-character Japanese poem.
