The Paradox of Healing | Dr Priyanka Reddy | TEDxRUAS

0:00 Transcriber: Marlyn Moreno Reviewer: Doris Pop So it was 2 a.m.

0:10 in the emergency room.

0:12 I was a medical intern, exhausted, running on coffee and adrenaline.

0:17 Just then, a middle aged woman was wheeled

0:20 into the emergency room in severe allergic reaction.

0:24 I remember putting my coffee away,

0:26 standing up and recollecting each and every step.

0:29 I was taught to treat patients in this reaction.

0:33 Airway check.

0:35 Breathing check.

0:36 Circulation check.

0:37 Adrenalin shot.

0:39 Check.

0:40 Clinically, everything seemed perfect.

0:43 Patient was stabilized.

0:45 But when I looked at the patient, something didn't feel right.

0:50 As I looked at her, her breathing was eased, but she was still trembling.

0:54 Her eyes darted away.

0:56 Her voice was shaking.

0:58 So I remember feeling well.

1:00 I stabilize this patient, but I don't think I've addressed her fear.

1:06 Now, fast forward to a few years later when I started my private practice.

1:10 I thought, like most of us,

1:12 healing is measurable and it's measured in progress charts,

1:16 lab reports, and by documenting before and after pictures.

1:21 Very crucial for us dermatologists.

1:23 Until one day I had a young patient who came in to see me.

1:28 She was 28 years old, brilliant, articulate,

1:31 having a successful, thriving career, but hiding behind her mask.

1:38 When I looked at her, her face was filled with red,

1:42 angry looking, inflamed acne.

1:46 So I started asking her medical history and the patient, without hesitation,

1:50 promptly interrupted me and she said, doctor, I stopped meeting people.

1:58 I turn off my camera during Zoom calls and I

2:01 have no interest in looking at myself in the mirror anymore.

2:06 My parents even tell me I will not get married if I look like this.

2:12 I paused as my heart sank because she

2:16 was not talking something familiar or about acne anymore.

2:20 This was the first time a patient had confided in me her deepest insecurities,

2:25 and I saw somebody so vulnerable.

2:30 The room was heavy with her words.

2:33 The silence cut deep, so she went to four dermatologists already.

2:40 She tried all the treatments, peels,

2:42 and products that were there for treating acne, but nothing seemed to work.

2:47 All her lab reports were normal, but what wasn't normal was her spirit.

2:54 So that day I realized I was not just going to treat her acne,

2:59 but I had to fix the shame that came with it.

3:02 I was I was just not going to heal her skin.

3:06 But I also had to heal her from within.

3:12 So I started to dig deep.

3:14 I asked her about her diet, stress, and sleep.

3:18 She broke down with tears rolling down her cheeks,

3:21 and she told me that her work was overwhelming and she

3:24 hadn’t slept in weeks Things at home weren't helping either,

3:29 so she was just surviving on coffee and some comfort junk food.

3:34 So her body was not reacting to medicines

3:36 because it was reacting to an inflammatory lifestyle.

3:42 So I realized my medical degree has taught me how to treat acne,

3:46 but not address the anxiety.

3:48 It came with.

3:49 It taught me how to prescribe medicines but not build a healthy lifestyle.

3:57 Medicine taught us precision, right?

3:59 How to measure, record, analyze, diagnose, treat.

4:03 But the patients and the world around us

4:06 was asking for something more context and conversation, treatment with care.

4:14 And that moment planted what was going to be called as the DNA 360 program,

4:19 which I'm extremely proud of, a program

4:21 that treats all the conditions from its root.

4:24 Now, we spent years learning the anatomy of body,

4:26 but not the anatomy of the conversation.

4:29 We learned physiology of diseases, but not that of true healing.

4:34 We also learned biochemistry of medicines,

4:36 right, but not the biochemistry of care.

4:40 So patients were no longer walking to us with just questions,

4:43 thanks to Google search answers and even influencers.

4:47 So they are coming to us with knowledge a little bit already.

4:50 But what they wanted from us was context and our perception.

4:56 So as doctors, we suddenly find ourselves wearing multiple hats as educators,

5:01 communicators, counselors.

5:03 And if you have a private practice, you are even an entrepreneur.

5:06 All these roles, which were out of syllabus

5:09 and nothing prepared us to face them with courage, right?

5:14 This mismatch is not a small gap anymore.

5:18 It's a grand big canyon,

5:20 and the only way that we are going to bridge this gap is to evolve and adapt.

5:28 Because the anatomy of a doctor cannot just be on muscle and memory anymore.

5:32 It has to extend beyond our syllabus.

5:35 It's an extension of our personality,

5:37 of our mindset and the skills we develop on the way.

5:42 We were trained entirely in the flux,

5:45 the modern, data driven, fast changing science.

5:47 But our patients are suffering from a lack

5:51 of timeless the ancient foundational principles.

5:54 And what are they?

5:56 The balance, purpose and connection.

5:59 And that's why I say to practice medicine today.

6:02 Just one degree is not enough.

6:05 We all need a second degree,

6:08 a degree that's not built in just textbooks or in classrooms.

6:13 This second degree is built in the corridors

6:16 of our real life experiences by listening,

6:20 leading, and learning beyond syllabus.

6:25 While the first degree gives us knowledge and certificates,

6:28 we can proudly hang on our walls.

6:30 This second degree gives you credibility that cannot be framed,

6:36 and it gives you stories that you carry in your heart.

6:40 So the new anatomy.

6:41 When I think of future of healthcare in the new anatomy,

6:45 I don't think of a heart just just that just pumps blood.

6:49 I don't think of a brain that analyzes data.

6:52 And I don't think of a spine that just keeps us upright.

6:55 But this new anatomy has three important organs,

6:59 which has empathy as the heart that makes this experience human,

7:04 which has technology as the brain,

7:06 which helps us think faster and connect wider,

7:08 and a spine that not just keeps us upright,

7:12 but keeps the profession and ties it all together.

7:17 The heart.

7:19 As a practicing dermatologist, every single day,

7:23 I just don't see diseases of skin and hair.

7:27 But I see how they can affect someone's

7:30 confidence and comfort in the most damaging way.

7:34 Cases like a musician who gave up his banking

7:38 career in the pursuit of his passion for music,

7:40 who stopped giving stage performances because he

7:43 was becoming extremely conscious of his baldness.

7:45 We have teenagers who stop going to college

7:48 because they are being constantly bullied for their acne,

7:51 or an IT professional who wears thick jackets even

7:54 in summer to control their flakes and hide their psoriasis.

8:01 So, my dear friends, every disease, please remember,

8:04 has two sides to it one visible

8:07 physical symptoms and two invisible emotional scars.

8:12 The one that can be picked up on lab

8:14 reports and can be seen with your naked eyes,

8:17 while the other that hides in shame, fear, and silence.

8:24 This is not a new discovery.

8:25 It's a rediscovery that the ancient Charaka Samhita spoke of Vijaya Chikitsa.

8:31 It’s the healing of the mind, or psychotherapy as a primary pillar of medicine,

8:36 which is equal to drugs and diet.

8:39 It's the timeless understanding that you cannot fix a symptom

8:43 if you cannot treat the body as a whole.

8:47 So what fascinates me the most about empathy

8:49 is not just its kindness, but pure chemistry.

8:54 When a patient feels genuinely hurt, right, the body responds psychologically.

9:00 When a patient, when a silent reassurance or a gentle touch.

9:04 This sort of empathy is known to reduce cortisol,

9:07 a stress hormone that significantly delays healing by increasing inflammation.

9:12 At the same time, it also has the power to increase the release of oxytocin,

9:17 which is the hormone of care and connection,

9:20 which helps in faster healing by boosting immunity.

9:23 And it can also increase pain tolerance.

9:26 That's the power of empathy, and that's the power of connection.

9:30 It just doesn't change how people feel.

9:32 It even changes how each and every cell responds.

9:36 So empathy is often perceived as the soft part of medicine,

9:40 the gentle part of medicine.

9:42 But let me tell you today,

9:44 it's the most profound, invisible part of your prescription.

9:51 It's the it's medicine in its most human form.

9:54 And this is the heartbeat that makes every single treatment work.

10:02 The brain.

10:05 Technology to me is the brain of modern healthcare.

10:10 It allows us to think faster, connect wider, way beyond the walls of our clinic.

10:16 When I started making medical content years ago,

10:18 when social media was not even a thing, it was not a marketing decision.

10:24 It was a moral one because I saw misinformation

10:28 spread faster than medicine I saw viral home remedies trending,

10:36 and I also saw miracle creams being sold like science with so much audacity.

10:43 I would meet people who would go to pharmacies buying

10:46 the so-called fairness or skin whitening creams in the pursuit of fairness.

10:49 Welcome to India.

10:52 Little did they know that they had damaging ingredients that could

10:56 have long lasting or even irreversible damage to the skin.

10:59 On the other spectrum, I had the DIY enthusiasts who were looking at the videos

11:06 made by the influencers and literally marinating their skin in lemon juice,

11:11 baking soda and whatnot, and would come to me with skin burns.

11:16 Why were these people believing internet so much?

11:19 Because nobody from science was speaking their language.

11:24 So it got me thinking,

11:26 if doctors will not show up in spaces like these, someone else will.

11:32 And guess who has to pay the price for it?

11:37 Our patients.

11:37 So I started showing up not as an influencer, but as a skin educator.

11:43 I simplified science.

11:45 I broke what was complex and I made scientific information become accessible,

11:50 heard, and usable to the audience.

11:53 So now I shifted the consultations from one on one in my room

11:57 and took it to the camera where I could address thousands,

12:01 lakhs, or even millions at once.

12:05 That's the power of technology.

12:09 Thank you.

12:11 So this journey taught me something very powerful.

12:16 Technology does not make doctors less human.

12:20 Technology gives science and humanity to the power of a louder microphone.

12:25 Technology can take you places you haven't heard of.

12:28 It can make your voice reach the places you haven't heard of.

12:31 It can open the doors to never knew existed.

12:34 And it can bring you opportunities you never even dreamt in your wildest dreams.

12:38 And now, with AI entering the system, this microphone just got way smarter.

12:44 AI can read patterns, analyze thousands of images,

12:48 and give you diagnoses in seconds.

12:50 It can even tell you the early signs of cancer.

12:53 It can give you a personalized treatment protocol.

12:56 So it's like having some of the best doctors from all around

13:00 the world with data from all around the world given to you in seconds.

13:05 It's just that they work tirelessly and much faster.

13:10 But let me tell you, AI can recognize patterns, not the pain.

13:17 AI can give you diagnosis but cannot reassure.

13:21 AI can predict.

13:22 But it cannot care.

13:24 And that's where we come in and why we are irreplaceable.

13:28 So I think the future of medicine is in the hands

13:32 of doctors who work with AI and not compete against it.

13:38 We should see technology not as a threat,

13:40 but as an ancient tradition again in India.

13:42 Sushruta, the father of surgery, was a technologist.

13:47 He designed over 120 surgical tools not to replace the healer,

13:51 but to extend the hands of healer to make impossible possible.

13:56 And AI is that new scalpel.

14:00 It's a flux tool that must be wielded with timeless wisdom.

14:06 That means, guys, we need to level up.

14:08 We need to see how AI reads so we can diagnose the bias and correct it.

14:15 We need to see how the data moves so

14:18 the patient's privacy or ethics is not just an afterthought.

14:23 We need to learn how AI interprets insights because

14:27 even the best algorithms still needs a great clinician.

14:32 AI does not replace empathy.

14:34 It can help us scale it by reducing our documentation work,

14:40 freeing up our time that we can actually

14:43 put in connecting and treating people our real jobs.

14:49 Technology pushes the boundaries, AI rewrites them,

14:52 but it's the humanity that gives it a direction and purpose.

14:59 The spine.

15:01 In the modern health care.

15:02 I look at Leadership as spine leadership

15:07 to me is something that holds everything upright.

15:12 When systems fail.

15:13 When the team burns out, when uncertainty hits,

15:20 it's the spine that holds it all together.

15:23 Early in my career, I thought leadership was for people with titles,

15:28 medical directors, founders, CEOs, CEOs, etc..

15:32 But later I realized every doctor is a leader in their own right.

15:41 Every time you come a panicking parent, every time you mentor a junior,

15:47 every time you stand up for ethics and every single

15:52 time you stand tall when others bend under the system's pressure,

15:56 you are a leader in your own right.

16:01 And this again, is ancient principle, the Hippocratic Oath.

16:04 It's the timeless moral code that holds

16:06 the flux of technology and the compassion.

16:10 Compassion of heart in a perfect alignment.

16:13 So for me now, the leadership is less about managing clinics,

16:16 but it's become more about shaping the ethics

16:19 of a culture and culture of the clinic,

16:22 where people have space to learn without fear,

16:24 where they question you without hesitation and can grow beyond limits.

16:30 Leadership translates chaos into direction, pressure into purpose,

16:36 disagreement into dialogue, and burnouts into belonging.

16:43 So when I think about the future of medicine and where it is headed,

16:48 I don't see a divide between science and soul.

16:50 I see a bridge that connects it.

16:52 And doctors have to be the first to walk across this bridge.

16:56 The future of healthcare will not be just built in labs or classrooms.

17:01 It's built in conversations, Innovations and quite courage to lead differently.

17:08 The world around us will keep changing faster than ever,

17:11 relentlessly and unpredictably.

17:15 Careers are no longer unidimensional.

17:17 My dear friends, it's going to be multidimensional influence because everything,

17:23 like everything in life,

17:25 medicine is also in constant flux, evolving, adapting and transforming.

17:31 And yet the purpose, the core, remains timeless.

17:36 That's the paradox of our profession.

17:39 We heal through change.

17:40 But what's the core never changes.

17:44 So as doctors, as humans, our challenge is to keep evolving,

17:48 to grow timelessly in the flux of our own making.

17:52 That's the doctor's second degree.

17:54 And that’s what it means to live in the timeless flux.

17:57 Thank you.