A piece of advice to those who want to disrupt health care

Living in the fine city of Boston, I am fortunate enough to be located right in the middle of a medical hub. A place that’s full of exciting new research, developments, and ideas. Working at the front line of hospital care, also with a keen interest in quality improvement, patient experience, and technology, I frequently attend social and professional healthcare networking events around the city. While doing this, I’ve gotten to meet a lot of interesting, diverse and ambitious people. But there’s a trend I’ve noticed among many students and resident physicians who are interested in health care policy and technology in particular. It’s the phenomenon of a young, starry-eyed future doctor who has barely even started their career yet (typically still in medical school), who expresses their desire to “completely transform health care.” Yet when you speak a little bit more to these well-intentioned folk, you realize that they want to do it from as far away as possible from the front lines of clinical medicine! From my experience, Boston has hundreds of these types of people floating around. Whenever I meet them (and don’t get me wrong, they seem sincere and pleasant enough), I’m amazed by how brazen they are in their assertions about what’s wrong with health care and what we need to do to “change things.” They are also the most enthusiastic about how great the proliferation of information technology, through meaningful use, has been for health care and how ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Physician Primary care Source Type: blogs