InnovateMED 2014

By

Photographs by Michael Hernandez’17

Teenager Suman Mulumudi demonstrates how Steth IO, a digital stethoscope he invented, visually records his own heartbeat.
Columbia theoretical physicist, Raul Rabadan, takes the stage to talk about cancer research.
Choreographer Tamar Rogoff and actor Gregg Mozgala describe how they conquered Gregg’s disability with dance and movement.

A choreographer who taught a man with cerebral palsy to dance. A 16-year-old high school student who invented an iPhone case that doubles as a visual stethoscope. A writer who investigated the connections between human and animal diseases. These innovators, along with eight others, spoke at the Sept. 27 InnovateMED conference hosted by students of the P&S Innovative Medicine Interest Group.

However, the speakers in the P&S Alumni Auditorium were not the only attendees who were able to share their ideas. The audience of 200, including students, faculty, staff, and members of the public, was prompted by interactive audience response questions to engage with friends and neighbors about the content of the talks and their implications for the future.

Raaka Kumbhakar, a second-year medical student at P&S, says, “I was proud to be a part of the conference—I was proud of my classmates who organized it, the faculty who spoke at it, and this school that hosted it.”

More information about InnovateMED and recordings of the conference can be found at www.innovatemed.org. Now that the first InnovateMED conference is past, the Innovative Medicine Interest Group is working on next year’s conference.

—Sarah K. Sherwood’17