It’s time to leave Medicine
Category: It’s Time To Leave Medicine
Please drink responsibility?
Really?
What about “Please advertise responsibly”?
President Donald Trump has apparently asked Pharmaceuticals to indicate the cost of their drugs in the advertisements.
What if we amplified this.
What if every advertiser had to spotlight the negative side effects of their product in their ad?
And no, I don’t mean the hurried “termsandconditionsapply” shpeel tacked on at the end…or even getting someone cool or sexy to distract the audience whilst technically fulfilling the mandate.
Heres a format that advertisers could be asked to use:
- Here’s how our product will ruin your life
- Here’s how much it will cost you
- Here’s why we want you to buy it
- Here’s how it will ruin your life
Of course, this isn’t really about government regulation of industries, or arguments about “freedom of speech”.
Instead it’s a reminder to all of us to be human and to treat one another with respect.
When you create an ad campaign or write a policy or lobby for a specific law, you are attempting to build a relationship with all those who will encounter the thing that you are making.
And when it comes to relationships, being brutally honest up front is the only way to build a healthy relationship that lasts.
Don’t allow yourself to hide the truth behind a massive billboard and really tiny small print.
Instead, hide your offering behind the brutally honest truth.
And if it scares everyone away, go back to the drawing board, and make something you’re not afraid to be brutally honest about.
Image: Gapingvoid
Hide and seek
“Everybody lies.”
Gregory House was only half wrong.
It’s not that patients are lying when they come to see you.
What’s happening is that your patients are asking you to play their version of hide and seek.
You know, the game we all played when we were kids.
Your job is to understand that, figure out the rules and play the game to win the right to help them.
And just because you think you know where they’re hiding, and just because your Handlers want you to wrap things up in 12 minutes or less…doesn’t mean that you get to just pull them out of their hiding place.
It’s called hide and seek, not hide and find.
The process of seeking is what helps you earn the right to transform your patients lives…instead of just addressing their presenting complaints.
Talk to my Manager
“Talk to my Manager.”
That’s a line used by Actors, Singers, Magicians, Acrobats, Dancers…anyone who has decided to act like a Professional in sharing their gifts with the world.
What about Medics?
Why don’t Medics have Managers?
Not Hospital Managers, but Personal Managers…men and women empowered to look out for the best interests of each Medic.
Personal Managers who monitor and handle:
- Working conditions
- Following up with complaints
- Professional qualifications
- Training opportunities
- Locum openings
- Hours of sleep each day/week
- Renegotiating contracts
- Fast-tracking your career advancement
- Tracking your progress towards personal, professional and social goals
Why don’t Medics have those kinds of Managers?
What would happen if they did?
For one thing, Medics would start to be treated with the respect accorded to Free Agents, rather than being disregarded as replaceable cogs in the industrial healthcare factory.
But beyond that, it would free you to focus your energy on the thing that drove you to pursue a career in Medicine in the first place:
Making a difference in the lives of others, whilst your Manager helped you profitably make a difference in your own life as well.
Medicine is a team sport. And a key member of your team needs to be your Personal Manager.
Image: Gapingvoid
Beyond Grey’s Anatomy
Anatomy 1.0 = Surface anatomy.
Anatomy 2.0 = Surgical anatomy. What lies beneath
Anatomy 3.0 = Cellular anatomy. Microscopic analysis of the anatomy of a cell.
Anatomy 4.0 = Psychosocial anatomy. The interplay of the mind, will, emotions and social context with physical anatomy.
Anatomy 5.0 = Radiographical anatomy. Mapping the inner workings of the human body using imaging tools e.g Xrays, CT scan, Ultrasound etc
Anatomy 6.0 = Molecular anatomy. Human genomics and gene editing. Epigenetics. Microbiome. Role of normal flora in managing and modifying human anatomy.
Anatomy 7.0 = Sub-molecular/sub-atomic anatomy. Identifying the unique electromagnetic beacons and landmarks of human anatomy. Invisible tramlines used by nanorobots to navigate, monitor and affect the human body.
Anatomy 8.0 = All of the above, mapped on a global scale. Identifying the location of every xq22.1 mutation or URA3 cell marker in realtime, geographically and historically.
The groupings may be up for debate.
But what’s clear is that we’re already living in a world, where simply knowing Snell’s or Grey’s Anatomy isn’t nearly enough.
Image: Gapingvoid
Treat different people differently
One size does not fit all.
There are different types of patients, as well as different types of Medics.
The drug-overdose case isn’t the chronic hypertension case, which isn’t the g3p2 who’s suddenly gone into labour at 26weeks case.
In fact, they’re not cases at all.
They’re different types of people with different ways of viewing the world.
A failure to acknowledge and match for their uniqueness would be as negligent as randomly grabbing the nearest blood pack for the next transfusion…simply because it’s red.
The same is true of Medics.
Each one has a unique set of motivations, aspirations, financial obligations, lifetime value and compatibility with different work settings.
Similar to Hollywood actors and actresses, this uniqueness should be reflected in the way each Medic is handled, the contracts they sign, the shifts they are allowed to work, the way they get paid and the level of emotional support they receive.
No, this approach isn’t compatible with the status quo, even though it is easier to implement with the technology and awareness we have access to.
But if the current healthcare shortages are the result of insisting on treating people the same, maybe it’s time we try treating different people differently.
Image: Gapingvoid
Patient #1
Patient #1.
That’s you.
The person you see in the mirror as soon as you get up in the morning and right before you go to bed at night.
You know this person, inside and out.
You know her history, her presenting complaints, her aspirations, financial situations and social complications.
Imagine if you weren’t allowed to treat patients 2 through 20 today, until you had completely taken care of the needs of patient #1.
What would that look like?
Maybe treating Patient #1 would require you to stop treating all the others.
Maybe taking care of Patient #1 would cause you to change your daily, weekly and monthly schedule.
Maybe taking care of Patient #1 would require lifestyle and career changes to give you the leverage you need to focus solely on helping Patient #1.
Maybe taking care of Patient #1 would mean changing your business model, where you don’t need to treat Patients 2 through 20 in order to get paid enough to kind of take care of Patient #1.
Maybe taking care of Patient #1 would mean that schools would have to focus on empowering their students with the skills, mindset and financial literacy to be able to take care of Patient #1 long before they leave school.
If you had to properly take care of Patient #1 before you were allowed to help Patients 2 through 20, how would you do it?
Take care of Patient #1.
Because when you do, you’ll find you’ve inadvertently helped take care of the rest of us who see the transformation in Patient #1’s life.
Image: Gapingvoid