Medical Economics advisory board member Sarah Matt, M.D., MBA, to speak at TEDxJacksonville

Sarah Matt, M.D., MBA, a member of the Medical Economics Editorial Advisory Board, will speak at TEDxJacksonville on Jan. 16, 2027, presenting a framework she calls the Five Distances to explain why health systems miss some patients.

"For nearly 20 years I have heard health systems call the same people 'hard to reach,'" Matt wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing the talk. "They are not hard to reach. The system was built for someone else."

Matt introduced the framework in her 2025 book, "The Borderless Healthcare Revolution."

Her TEDxJacksonville speaker profile describes a U.S. health care system designed around an assumed patient who is insured, digitally connected, fluent in English and willing to trust institutions. The Five Distances framework names the specific barriers that keep everyone else out and treats closing them as a design problem for the system.

The talk is built around the red "You Are Here" dot on a map and the distances that keep people off it, Matt wrote.

Matt is surgically trained and provides internal medicine charity care in rural upstate New York. Her executive roles have included vice president of health care product strategy at Oracle Health, vice president of solution strategy at NextGen Healthcare and chief strategy officer at Sovato. She is an assistant professor at SUNY Upstate Medical University and a board trustee at Oneida Health.

This year's event, themed "You Are Here," runs from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Lazzara Performance Hall in the Fine Arts Center at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. Matt is one of 11 speakers on a lineup that also includes Roberto Benzo, M.D., a pulmonologist and behavioral scientist.

Early-bird tickets cost $99 for general admission and $49 for students through Nov. 6, according to the event's Eventbrite listing. Prices then rise to $125 and $59. Tickets are nonrefundable but can be transferred up to 24 hours before the event.