“Write it down,” advises Jeffrey Deal, inventor, physician, author, and the director of health studies for a global non-profit. Additionally, Dr. Deal prescribes collaboration and sharing credit as the other key elements to put an idea into action. With numerous patents, he offers a proven remedy to just having “the idea.” Drawing from his experience of using his room decontamination system at Ebola treatment centers in Liberia, Dr. Deal passionately shares how you can make a difference too.

Jeffrey Deal’s life exemplifies the idea that opportunity emerges from catastrophe. Health challenges have presented obstacles, which Dr. Deal interpreted as only detours and chose another route. For almost 20 years, he worked as a board-certified otolaryngologist in private practice in Charleston, South Carolina. Then, losing much of the vision in one eye from a retinal disease, Dr. Deal directed his energies to anthropology and mission work. From his passion for tropical medicine, he has worked in South Sudan and Dafur, as well as Tanzania, where he was instrumental in establishing the first Emergency Training Program in that country. Another first resulted from the collaboration, with his brother David and others, in the invention and patent of a machine that automatically decontaminates every surface in a room, and is effective against every known pathogen.