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2014: Year of the Family Physician (Part III)
Color matters. Think back to autumn, where a sea of burnt orange or a tide of crimson identifies college campuses on Saturdays. Green became a banner of change and solidarity during the Arab Spring. Movements need a flag, a rallying image to draw the eyes of the next recruit. Once the image catches the eye, it needs to capture the heart. To advance 2014 as the Year of the Family Physician, I suggest that family physicians modify their daily white lab coat. We replace the collar with a blue one. This is to symbolize that family medicine...
read more2014: Year of the Family Physician (Part II)
In my last blog, I proposed that “we prepare throughout 2013 to anoint 2014 as the Year of the Family Physician.” Now, I offer some strategy and direction. Sustained meaningful and valued movements depend on individual connections at the most basic level. We move along a path from touch to grasp to embrace. An attitude of gratitude conveys acknowledgement, acceptance and affirmation to those we serve. Hold open discussions with your practice or office, local or state family medicine chapter on how your part of the country can take...
read moreBaseball and Health Care: What Medicine Can Learn from Our Nation’s Pastime
Baseball In the mid-1970s, Bill James was a night watchman at a factory in Lawrence, Kansas. During quiet nights, he began exploring baseball statistics in a novel way. He wanted to boil baseball down to its essentials and determine what statistic(s) most strongly correlated with winning games. But just as with most organizations, those in professional baseball were not impressed with the unique findings of this outsider, and were thus resistant to the change he prescribed. It has only been since the early 2000s that some general managers and...
read more2014: Year of the Family Physician (Part I)
The Affordable Care Act will facilitate health insurance coverage for 30 million additional family members, neighbors, and co-workers by 2014. Unfortunately, they will compete for access to a primary care pool with a projected 30,000 provider shortfall. Family physicians number 100,000 in the United States. But, are we 100,000 strong? Can we elevate our diversity into unity and assume the lead responsibility in addressing this crisis? Dire times implore us to champion the big hairy audacious idea or the disruptive innovation. We need to...
read moreBrains on Fire
This is the third and final blog post in series that we entitled: #FMRevolution: The Fire Within. In our first blog post, I examined the movie Escape Fire and its ramifications for innovative thinking and the movement toward health care transformation. In our second blog post in the series, I drew a connection between the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire, and #FMRevolution (We are #District12!). And now, my brain is on fire. That’s right, my brain is en fuego and I like it that way, thank you very much. Why is it...
read moreFamily Medicine Revolution: The Fire Within (Part II)
Catching Fire In the second book of the Hunger Games trilogy, a rebellion begins to catch fire in post-apocalyptic Panem. Likewise, the Family Medicine Revolution is beginning to catch fire in the U.S. health care system. Here are three reasons why I believe that the #FMRevolution fire is catching and will continue to burn brightly: 1. Health care reform is here to stay. With SCOTUS ruling in favor of the constitutionality of PPACA and President Obama’s re-election, health reform will not die. The truth is, whether or not these two events...
read moreWhy Primary Care is the Future of Health Care
This post originally appeared on October 31, 2012 at Common Sense Family Doctor Several weeks ago, Primary Care Progress asked me to serve as one of their guest bloggers for this year’s National Primary Care Week, writing on the theme: “Why is primary care the future of health care?” I didn’t end up contributing a post, for a few reasons: 1) not enough time; 2) concern that the question was too physician-centric (rather than patient-centered); 3) the feeling that I had nothing new to say on the topic that I...
read moreFamily Medicine Revolution: The Fire Within (in 3 Chapters)
Escape Fire If you like movies that tell a good story and you give a damn about the future of the U.S. health care system, I recommend carving out 90 minutes from the tyranny of urgency otherwise known as your life to watch “Escape Fire”. You have the option of watching it at your local movie theater or you could do what I did which was to rent it online and watch it whilst en route to this week’s hot, wonkfest otherwise known as the AAFP Congress of Delegates in Philadelphia, PA. The movie derives its title from the story of Wagner Dodge, a...
read moreBattle Planning for the #FMRevolution: Strategic Questions
1. What tactical advantages (i.e., strengths) does your organization possess to be successful? 2. What battle vulnerabilities (i.e., weaknesses) threaten our success? 3. What do our troops look like – how will different membership segments be engaged in the battle? 4. What story/stories must we be able to tell to win the battle and to whom? 5. What skills will family physicians, and staff, need to win the battle? 6. With what other troops (organizations) must your organization work to move the Revolution forward? 7. What collateral damage are...
read moreOur #FMRevolution Olympic Moment
In advance of last year’s AAFP National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students (NCFMR), I blogged about family medicine and origin stories. My premise was that all heroes have an origin story and all family docs are heroes and so why shouldn’t we? In the process, I learned these pointers about constructing origin stories: Give us a reason to care Don’t make your hero a Chosen One– give him a chance to prove himself It may be useful to tie your character’s origin story to the villain’s plot Don’t make the...
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