From Prescription to Ocean — A TEDx Talk by Jamie Hayes: One year on

The Making of a TEDx Talk: A thirty-five-year career of listening to clinicians, patients and the public

It’s one year since my TEDx talk, Prescription to Ocean: The Hidden Impact of Medicines, was published. The talk was delivered at Swansea TEDx on 14^th June 2026. Reassuringly, TEDx talks, especially the medical ones, are fact-checked (for those talks that contain facts) before they are published. The talk was published on 11th August 2026.

Preparing the TEDx talk required a different discipline from preparing the usual conference presentations, keynotes, academic lectures and workshops. No notes. No slides. Every sentence mattered. Every statistic had to earn its place. One take. The challenge was to distil my thirty-five-year career into 15 minutes.

During those thirty-five years, I have often been reminded that it is seldom the detail that resonates with an audience; it is the narrative, the emotion, and the relevance. I have long held the view that, if we want to influence practice beyond our immediate professional networks, we must become better storytellers.

The response to the TEDx talk has reinforced that view. The talk has reached tens of thousands of people around the world and, perhaps more importantly, has generated conversations among clinicians, environmental scientists, policymakers and members of the public. Many have commented that they have never previously considered what happens to medicines once they leave the patient, or how prescribing decisions might have consequences beyond the individual receiving treatment.

As healthcare professionals, in addition to clinical outcomes, we often judge success by publications, guidelines or policy changes. These remain critically important, but public engagement also has an important role.

Over the last 2 years, as part of my NHS role, I have been delivering sessions to members of the public in collaboration with various organisations including University of the Third Age (U3A), Woman’s Institute, Age Cymru and other community-based hubs. The sessions take place in chapels, churches, community centres, rugby clubs, and other community settings across Wales.

These public sessions explore the hard work that’s involved in being a patient on multiple medicines - the treatment burden. No notes. No slides. Listening to members of the public. A conversation. A dialogue with the public about their medicine-taking behaviour and the themes covered in the TEDx - shared decision making, polypharmacy, deprescribing and the environmental impact of medicines. Challenges that require societal understanding as well as professional expertise. The conversations are fascinating. 

Perhaps the most unexpected outcome of the TEDx has been the continuing relevance of the message itself. Sustainability is now embedded as a prominent theme within healthcare, and rightly so. Medicines remain one of the greatest achievements of modern healthcare, transforming and extending millions of lives. Yet good stewardship requires us to consider the entire lifecycle of medicines - from development and prescribing to use, disposal and their wider environmental consequences. These are not arguments against medicines - they are arguments for using them wisely and responsibly.

One year later, I receive numerous requests to deliver Prescription to Ocean: The Hidden Impact of Medicines to audiences across the UK. Which is nice. The TEDx platform provided a unique opportunity to connect evidence with emotion, science with storytelling and healthcare with environmental stewardship. In an era of increasing complexity, misinformation and competing priorities, our ability to translate science into compelling narratives is so important.

Communicating beyond our own disciplines is no longer an optional extra; it is becoming a professional responsibility.

 Jamie Hayes

Thanks to the guests of the Aural Apothecary Podcast.

Special mentions also to Neal Maskrey, Alf Collins, Luck Pollock, Steve Williams, Paul Gimson, Clare Howard, Jonathan Underhill, Tommy Whitelaw, Shaheen Shore, Danielle Adams and Dick Johns.