Club Meeting: Jon Gell – BioPower

Club member Jon Gell delivered a fascinating program, “Biologic Power (Biopower)” at our club meeting last Wednesday, Feb 26th.  Jon, former Medical Director and Chief of Staff with Asante, was introduced by Peter Sage.

The concept of Biopower was introduced by French philosopher Paul-Michel Foucault. Biopower may be defined as “a form of regulation exerted by the state or by institutions which attends to individual bodies and lives in ways that are designed to enable the protection of the population and the maximization of their quality of life.”

For context, Jon led us through examples of Political Power, Economic Power and Biopower, and how they may overlap and impact a social issue. The combination of Public Health and Healthcare Systems drive the social determinants of health, the foundation of Biopower.

The relevancy of Biopower to Rotary, and our club in particular, was emphasized with a slide listing many of our club’s service projects clearly tying to the positive aspects of the social determinants of health.

A thought-provoking presentation with an inspirational message for Rotarians. Great presentation, Jon.