Hans Rosling's presentation

video: http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=hans_rosling&flashEnabled=1

Having watched this video a number of things jump to mind. First off, the manner in which it is presented. This is a dynamic speaker whose enthusiasm grabs your attention. Moreover, the presentation itself helps keep you visually stimulated as well as informed in regards to the subject being presented. In essence, the presentation was not only informative, but a great way of promoting Gapminder (http://www.gapminder.org/).

In terms of the the topic being presented. These trends regarding wealth and life expectancies clearly represent the disparities that exist between countries. Moreover, he emphasizes the differences that exist within regions. What I found very interesting is how he noted in each region, there is a range from countries that are poor to countries that are rich and how to develop a program for the whole region when there are so many variations within the region. In other words, a region is not equal, so can an intervention be successful for the rich if you are tailoring it for the poor? This makes sense because it is clear to anyone that the rich have a completely different mindset than the poor.

That being said, it makes me wonder how do you design an intervention for all these subgroups? For each region, the intervention must be socially and economically relevant, thus suggesting highly specialized interventions. Certainly a daunting task. However, I feel that working with the already local health organizations, and hopefully establishing an efficient process, big change can occur.