Susannah Fox

Care taker, Connector, Idea generator, Parent, Technologist

I help people navigate health and technology. I currently serve as the Entrepreneur in Residence at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. From 2000-14, I worked as an associate director at the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. I directed the health research portfolio as well as the project’s digital strategy. In my research I combined traditional surveys with fieldwork in online patient communities, with a particular focus on people living with rare and chronic conditions. I am the former editor of the website for U.S. News & World Report magazine and worked at RealNetworks during its start-up phase. I graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in anthropology.

Infecting health care with humanity.

The most exciting innovation of the connected health era is…people talking with each other. It can feel very basic, even ancient, to connect with someone who shares the same condition or life stage. Not very sexy. Unless you think being human is sexy (I do). What’s new is that technology allows us to widen the network of people we can talk with, increase the velocity of those conversations, inject them with more source material, then archive and make them searchable. If you can find a "just-in-time someone-like-you" you'll navigate the health care maze more quickly & confidently. My mission is to help everyone see the possibility of help from peers as well as professionals.

Anthropology (Applied), Food Allergies, Health, Technocultural Studies

I've attended TEDMED but this will be my first TED. So I guess it will be a story of discovery.

Braiding hair