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Thomas Matysik

Storyboard for TED Talk


1) Technological advance of medicine, show video clip (approximately 45 sec-1 min
for video + slide)
a. Breakdown of video, go into how this buildup of technology has led to
doctors spending less and less time with their patients, and how this means
that they dont really consider alternative or complementary treatments
that could also improve the patients condition.
b. On slides, show evidence from experts, statistics (quoted in introduction)
2) Introduction to humor therapy, definition, examples (1 minute)
a. Talk about what a complementary treatment is, and why it could be
effective.
b. Then introduce humor therapy and the theory behind it.
c. Why it is underused and underappreciated, even considered pseudoscience
d. On slide, show definition of humor therapy and complementary treatment,
maybe a quote from a source and/or an image of a type of humor therapy
3) Personal Interest in the story (1 minute)
a. Grandfather, oncologist never talked to us, never met the people calling
the shots in his treatment, staff seemed cold and disconnected. Very
depressing atmosphere.
b. Shadowing at childrens hospital, doctors socializing with the kids, telling
jokes, making them laugh. Even saw make-a-wish. Focus on how it was
supplementary to the normal course of treatment, not a replacement.
c. Show picture of childrens hospital w/ docs interacting on slides
d. Could play video from childrens hospital (ex. Make a wish).
4) Humor therapy in psychoanalysis (30-40 seconds)
a. Show evidence on slides + relevant image
b. Talk about how humor can be used as a defensive mechanism by the pt,
doc can use this to expose the root causes of the issue, in this case, the
cause of the pts borderline personality disorder
c. This proves that humor therapy can be effective for psychoanalysis
5) Humor therapy in physical health (1 minute-1:30)

a. Cardiovascular studyfound that humor therapy can improve health in


cardio patients and even in regular people w/ their blood pressure.
b. Dialysis studyfound that certain humor therapy based interventions
helped in treatment of dialysis patients.
c. These treatments should be implemented on a much wider scale, and while
it may not treat the disease directly, many modern treatments are also
intended to treat the disease symptoms rather than the disease itself.
d. Slide(s)-show pics of the types of humor therapy suggested/used by the
studies. Also could show statistical proofs.
6) Counterarguments (1-1:30)
a. Not enough research done on the subject
i. Small sample size
ii. Statistical insignificance
iii. Faulty methodology
iv. Slides-show complexity of statistical calculations and explain how
bias can skew the statistical significance.
b. Too difficult and costly to implement
i. Sudairy research in Saudi Arabia
ii. Da Vinci Surgical System
iii. Relative low cost of implementing humor therapy
iv. Makes sense to bring humor therapy into hospitals
v. Show figures and graphs from Sudiary research
7) Conclusion (1 minute)
a. Show Merluzzi research (w/ his slides if he provides them)
i. If he gives me the slides, show the really cool figure that shows
how humor therapy would fit into the overall treatment plan. (flow
chart).
ii. Show graphs of psychological distress based on the levels of
emotional support and physical debilitation.
b. Conclude that more research should be done to investigate humor therapy, and
if it is found to be effective, then it should be implemented wide-scale in hospitals
across the country as a complementary treatment for chronic disease.

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