Arc is an independent organization that’s on a quest to help shape and lead one of the great megatrends of our era – the convergence, or “fusion,” of biomedicine with information technologies and big data. Equally critical is the rise of the health and wellness movement, a consumer-based groundswell that has seen millions of people insisting on participating in their own health.
Our Community
Arc is supported by and seeks out the world’s top scientists, thinkers, executives, physicians, investors, entrepreneurs, advocates, policy makers, philosophers, writers, artists and other leaders who understand the need for personal involvement in the rising fusion phenomenon.
Arc is setting out to disrupt the hell out of the things I care most about.
Fusion is a big part of the future.
What Arc is articulating is critical, it’s a key part of the future – that’s why I’m here.
We need this.
We need to understand that we‘re standing on the threshold of a whole new understanding of human biology, health, and disease—and we need to grasp the opportunity.
Arc is creating a forum and a format for fusion leaders to engage in serious dialogue and action-oriented projects about how to encourage and hammer out a new world of fusion.
We start with an Arc Fusion Dinner and Program dedicated to a specific fusion theme, provocative issue, or burning business or societal question. These provocative evenings convene top leaders in health, IT, biomedicine – and other facets of society – and feature a reception to loosen people up, a highly-produced and edgy program of speakers delivering Arc Fusion Talks and participating in Arc Fusion Debates; plus music and arts offerings and thematic Arc Fusion Polls.
Jeffersonian Dinners: The group then divides into small tables where Table Talk Leaders guide a discussion about the evening’s theme using a "Jeffersonian Dinner” format, where everyone answers a table talk question, and ideas and solutions are bandied and recorded. (What is said at the tables is private and will be used only with permission of the speaker).
Juan Enriquez and Eric Schadt discuss “Should we build a better human?”
May 2014 in San Francisco
Arc captures the talk, ideas and solutions from each dinner theme and creates an issue of the Arc Fusion Magazine in words, video and audio. We preserve the live content from our events and augment each theme with stories, research, and features. Issues include engagement tools for the Arc community to continue conversations begun at our dinners, and to share and develop ideas. Arc also publishes the results of Arc Fusion Polls sent to dinner guests as “homework” before the event.
The “Read” section of the Arc Fusion Magazine, taken from talks and information presented at the April, 2015 Arc Fusion Dinner in San Francisco
Arc is partnering with IDEO to develop ideas generated in the Arc process into actual projects, initiatives, proposals, companies, and products. We plan to assemble working groups and to convene expert panels and networks and offer consulting services to the Arc community. These projects fall into two categories:
1. Public Projects: Addressing ecosystem, infrastructure and societal issues around the fusion of health, IT and biomedicine. These start with a large “public” dinner with follow-up sessions by Arc and Ideo to develop reports, initiatives, suggested standards, challenges, and products.
2. Custom Projects: Addressing specific tactical and strategic questions around systems, products, investments, companies and policies for businesses, organizations, government, and funds. Arc-Ideo holds small dinners and expert sessions to discuss questions and develop solutions that can then be executed on by Ideo.
The Arc-Ideo collaboration will discuss, research, and offer solutions to critical questions from the Arc community. Arc-Ideo will:
We plan to launch the Arc-Ideo “Build” program in 2016 – look for more detailed information and examples to come soon.
IDEO’s Rodrigo Martinez leads an Arc workshop in Boston with Harvard geneticist George Church and others about how to translate data into wisdom.
San Francisco, May, 2014
London, December 2014
Boston, October 2015
Summit-at-Sea, near the Bahamas, November 2015
Boston: October 22, 2015: Money: Are we insane? The cost of healthcare and how to pay for the future
San Francisco: April 21, 2015: The Future: Whither humans and technology in 100 years?
London: December 3, 2014: Longevity: The science of radical life extension and what happens if it succeeds?
Boston: October 7, 2014: Big Data: Data vs. Wisdom
New York: September 18, 2014: BioEnhancement: Should we build a better human? (Reprise)
San Francisco: September 16, 2014: Aging and the Brain
San Francisco: May 1, 2014: BioEnhancement: Should we build a better human?
San Francisco: Fusion: Obliterate silos now! A fusion primer for the 21st century
New York: Outcomes: Stop talking about data and use it! How fusion can make us healthier
Washington, DC: Policy: What good is government?
Boston: Genetics: Let’s edit a new human! Time to get real about the promise and peril
London: Cost: How to blow a trillion dollars: Why is health care in the UK so much less expensive than the US?
Subject to Change