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A few days ago, we conducted an exclusive email interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent at CNN. Dr. Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon and award-winning journalist, has traveled around the world to deliver live reports from the sites of natural disasters and combat zones, and has produced special reports dedicated to helping improve public health and spreading awareness of health-related environmental issues.
Below is a transcript of our correspondence, where Dr. Gupta shares the best health solutions he has come across, and describes their implications on both a global and a very personal scale.
Worldchanging: In your opinion, what will be the major health questions of the next generation, both in the developed and the developing world?
Dr. Sanjay Gupta: The biggest questions will be how to get the lifesaving technology, techniques and wisdom that are available to a relatively small percentage of the world into the hands of the entire world. The question of access will have to be fully addressed and that affects both the developing and developed world. Someone once said to me that if the "cure for AIDS came in a glass of clean water," we still wouldn't be able to rid the world of AIDS. The problem is access and we have to solve it.
Worldchanging: Livable cities are a potent weapon in the fight against climate change, so making cities healthy and attractive places to live is a key strategy. If you were a member of the team planning a city or urban neighborhood, what amenities would you place nearby, and why?
Gupta: Too many of our cities are built with an eye toward commerce, instead of health. As a result, we have parking structures instead of parks and roads instead of walkways. There are plenty of examples where you can do both. Healthier cities are successful cities. I would focus on increasing the amount of green space, because it is good for the earth and for our own bodies. I might buy thousands of bikes, paint them a really ugly color (so people wouldn't steal them...) and simply distribute them around a city. I would paint quarter mile markers on every walkway, so citizens could always have feedback on how far they are walking. I would also want to see urban gardens like they have in the south side of Chicago. Teaching my kids to garden would provide immeasurable rewards both for them and for their community.
Worldchanging: Worldchanging has covered a lot of innovations that use technologies originally developed for other applications to solve medical problems. (One recent example, Project Masiluleke, uses SMS text messages to get
the word out about a public AIDS helpline.) In your travels, have you encountered other creative innovations like this that are making a difference?
Gupta: There are so many examples out there. I did have a chance to see first hand the One Laptop Per Child organization that Nicholas Negroponte put forward. It is bold and forward thinking, and a colleague of Negroponte's even used the analogy of comparing these computers to vaccinations. They are, after all, life-making tools. The laptop project also encourages literacy...which of course has health benefits too, since people are able to share health information.
Worldchanging: Who are some of the worldchanging doctors (or other medical professionals) you know who are making a difference?
Gupta: Paul Farmer is one of the most remarkable and selfless doctors I have met. He has built free health clinics where nobody thought they could work. He has saved and improved countless lives by using the existing infrastructures in places like Haiti and Rwanda and improving upon them. He is also a relentless public health advocate, and is redefining health diplomacy.
Worldchanging: In the past, Worldchanging has covered many humanitarian solutions for bringing clean drinking water to communities in need. What solutions do you think offer hope for spreading access to clean water for all
people?
Gupta: Earlier this year, I hosted a documentary called The Survival Project: One Child at a Time for CNN. One of the special guests was actress Lucy Liu, who spent time all over the world looking at the issues of clean water and its impact on communities. I have seen how people living in underrepresented places may spend their entire day traveling to wells with a bucket in hand. The walk takes them hours and then of course, hours to walk back with heavy water in hand. It is impossible to live a healthy life, let alone make a life. I was pretty inspired to read about the TAP project, a fund-raising campaign. You can read about it more at UNICEF's website, but it will remind you of the value of tap water, and what we can do right now to improve the access to something we take for granted.
