I’m going to Medical School (Sorta)!

Nearly 2 months ago, my friend Nick Dawson encouraged me to apply for a scholarship to the Stanford Medicine X conference. I didn’t think I had a chance, but the conference sounded so exciting that I decided to give it a shot and whipped up an application. The deadline for the award announcement passed, and I never heard anything, so I chalked it up to a miss. And then last night I got an email saying I’d been awarded a scholarship! My name is up on the website and everything.

According to their website, “Medicine X is a catalyst for new ideas about the future of medicine and health care. The Medicine X initiative is designed to explore the potential of social media and information technology to advance the practice of medicine, improve health, and empower patients to be active participants in their own care. The “X” is meant to evoke a move beyond numbers and trends—it represents the infinite possibilities for current and future information technologies to improve health.”

They’ve got Michael Graves as a keynote speaker! A man I wrote about in my application without even realize he was going to be at the event. They will also have IDEO, which is a company mentioned in every business book ever written. As a designer who is also getting her MBA, I have immense love and appreciation for IDEO. Plus I’m hoping to meet up with some awesome people. Some I know from Twitter and communities like #hcsm and But You Don’t Look Sick.

Now it is not a full ride, but it is significantly less than the over $1,000 fee for normal attendees. I still need to cover accommodations and travel costs, but I’m hoping some lovely friends in the area will let me couch surf. I’m so excited to be going and the bonus is that since I’m already going to be flying to California, I have the perfect excuse to spend a couple extra days bumming around my favorite state. (I haven’t been back since the Lost finale.) I’m hoping to be able to fly out of LAX and spend a day or two in my old (preschool) stomping ground.

This week I got some bad news about the current state of my health, and this positive health-related news is really cheering me up.