The Visual MD Brings Health & Wellness Education to the Masses

The most recent video to be released from TEDMED 2011 is a presentation from Alexander Tsiaris on his revolutionary health information website, The Visual MD.

Tsiaris is a world-renowned technologist, journalist, photographer, painter, author, and entrepreneur who made his way into the world of medical imaging by photographing a story about ophthalmic techniques.

From there, he taught himself the physics and mathematics required to create his own lenses used for microscopic and endoscopic imaging. Tsiaris later learned how to write his own computer programs, and, using his knowledge of physics and light, created visualization software for human anatomy. This led him to start his own medical imaging company, Anatomical Travelogue.

While Tsiaris’ medical images have widely been used by doctors and scientists, his newest venture, The Visual MD, brings them to the public to improve patient education.

While most doctors do their best to explain tests and procedures to their patients, more often than not, patients do not fully understand what their tests results mean, why they are taking the tests, and how certain procedures work. Similarly, when people attempt to improve their health with diet and exercise, most do not truly understand how their diet affects them or how certain exercises affect their body.

The Visual MD hopes to change that by giving the public the tools and education to “visually understand and manage their health.”

The website features a huge database of educational videos, interactive models, explanations of results for dozens of tests, and the largest nutritional library ever created.

Tsiaris explains how it all works in his TED Talk: