Each TEDMED speaker is at the top of their field. We have spiritual gurus like Deepak Chopra, public health figures like CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, and Singularity Hub regulars like 23andMe‘s Anne Wojiciki. Of course, sprinkled into the conference are more familiar names like Martha Stewart, Goldie Hawn, and David Blaine. Each presenter, celebrity or otherwise, has a tale to tell about the past, present, and future of medicine. There is literally no other conference on Earth that has such a diverse and star studded set of speakers.

The great thing about TEDMED presentations is that they focus in on developments that the speaker finds as amazing as the audience. Every TED video I’ve ever seen has shown me individuals who are excited and moved by the topics they discuss. These people love to present what they excel at, and that sort of enthusiasm combined with competence really makes TEDMED stand out.

If you want to know what each guest will focus on, just go to the TEDMED speakers page and start browsing through head shots of the attendees. While the topic of the presentation isn’t stated outright, you can get a good idea of what each will discuss just by reading their bio. I’m really interested to see if Anne Wojiciki gives us updates on how the ‘research revolution’ at 23andMe is coming along.

Want to attend? You’ll need $4000 and a time machine. Tickets for this year are sold out and they come at a hefty premium. If you think you’ll be willing to shell out four grand next year, you need to get on the mailing list so that you can sign up for next year’s conference. I don’t want to come off as a fanboy, but attending TED or TEDMED would be a dream come true. If you’ve got an extra (and amazingly discounted) ticket let me know. I’ll trade you a blog post for it.

Health 2.0 Con 2009 will have over 100 speakers, many hundreds of live demos of products in an exhibit hall, and a keynote address by Aneesh Chopra, the newly appointed Chief Technology Officer of the US government. Discussion groups will focus on everything from “Gaming and Healthcare” to “defining Health 2.0″. It’s a great opportunity to be at the cross roads of healthcare technology and healthcare philosophy.

The list of speakers, presenters, and exhibit hall displays is epic. You’ve got web based groups like Google Health, WebMD, and Microsoft. There will be discussion abouts the future of health plans with the likes of BlueCrossBlueShield, Cigna, and Kaiser Permanente. I personally would love to discuss games and healthcare with Gaming4Health and the American Heart Association. There are too many mind-blowing panels to mention. Check out the agenda to learn more.

Of course, with a conference comes big name sponsors like Athena Health, Pfizer, Cisco, Oracle, Johnson & Johnson, and many more. As an individual concerned with the future of healthcare, I honestly often see these large corporations as the enemy. That’s naive and paranoid of me, I know. Part of what Health 2.0 is all about is getting people like me to interface with the giants of healthcare in a mutually beneficial way. I’m really interested to see how sponsors and speakers and attendees set the discussion at this conference.

Speaking of attendees, do you have $1800 laying around? That’s the full price of a conference ticket. All the exhibitors (but presumably not the panelists) are tossing up that much green to display their wares. Practicing physicians have options for attending for free. If you’re a doctor interested in the conference make sure to see if you can avoid shelling out the two grand.

The future of healthcare will be shaped by democratized technology (like ubiquitous biosensors, or smart toilets) as well as aggregate patient groups. As Clay Shirky mentions in the video, patients outnumber professionals in the industry by 100 to 1. Patients are healthcare. As that realization spreads, and technology works to make it a reality, the way we live and heal is going to change. I can’t wait to see what insights the Health 2.0 Conference brings. Rest assured that whatever Singularity Hub learns, we’ll be passing on to you.

[video credit: Health2.0 TV through Vimeo]