Coming up on Thursday April 11, "The Second Annual Great Silicon Valley Oxford Union Debate" co-hosted by Santa Clara University and the Churchill Club.

Motion: "This House believes that Silicon Valley innovation will solve the healthcare crisis."

Speakers:

Stacey Chang, Director, Health & Wellness Practice, IDEO. 

Joe DiNucci, Proposition Team Captain, Professional Coach; Partner, Enabling Thought Leadership.

Bruce Jenett, Partner, DLA Piper (Life Sciences).

Gary Lauer, Chairman & CEO, eHealth. 

Michael Malone, Opposition Team Captain, American author, columnist at The Economist, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times, former editor, Forbes. 

Robert Obana, Executive Director & CEO, NCIRE, The Veterans Health Research Institute.

Maria Sendra, Partner, Jones Day.

Disease, infections, aging population, healthcare access and cost. Some people see healthcare as a crisis. Others see opportunity. While Washington wrestles with rising health care costs, Silicon Valley's engineers and scientists are dealing in molecules, sensors, and other technologies to radically improve healthcare treatments, options and outcomes. Yet some observe that the science/engineering/innovation mindset will not solve the crisis-- that, in fact, the most serious challenges in healthcare are not that rational.

Foremski's Take: This should be an entertaining evening. Healthcare is one of the only industries that has managed to take innovation and increase costs. In nearly all other human endeavors innovation in technology has helped to dramatically reduce costs -- why is that?

It seems that the motion is proved from the start that the "challenges in healthcare are not that rational."