Aneesh Chopra on TV's lessons for real life

If you want to know how to create innovative technology on a shoestring budget, Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra has some advice: "MacGyver your way to a better solution."

Chopra drew the analogy to the TV character, played by Richard Dean Anderson, at an event on innovation in health care hosted by Bisnow on June 2. The show, titled simply "MacGyver," ran seven seasons from 1985 to 1992. The titular character had an amazing ability to improvise with materials on hand to create weapons, escape capture and otherwise thwart his enemies.

Chopra said MacGyver is a good example, if fictional, of "frugal engineering."

"The reason we love MacGyver is you take what you've got" and invent a new use for it, he said. "This is about creativity," not big-budget programs.