ICYMI – In Case You Missed It – January 2016 – for Physicians and Physician Leaders
“It seemed like the medical industry was one that could be disrupted. I went to work on a business plan and the sales and marketing side of it later, but it didn’t fly. We didn’t love it.”
– Kimbal Musk, Elon Musk’s brother on a digital health startup they almost founded
Health Care
- Health care needs to innovate! A Surgery Center That Doubles as an Idea Lab –
- Two-dozen of the best health care stories (and journalists) from 2015. All pretty amazing. Did you miss this one? The ugly civil war in American Medicine. Doctors are increasingly furious about “maintenance of certification” rules, and in a controversial Newsweek story, Kurt Eichenwald explains why.
- The American Medical Association (AMA) is investing $15 million in a San Francisco start-up called Health2047 to disrupt health care because out of the “tens of thousands of initial apps that have emerged, we have a lot of noise but not very much signal…Very few of these went through a regulatory process to evaluate how they interact with patient safety and whether or not they were an integral part of the work flow.”
- Great qualities for doctors disrupting health care. Hard to find them though! From 60 Minutes: How to get a job at Apple as discussed by Apple CEO Tim Cook. Hint – it’s passion and idealism. People who want to change the world.
Outside Health Care
- Perhaps hearing from contrarian views is a good thing! Michael Burry, Real-Life Market Genius From The Big Short, Thinks Another Financial Crisis Is Looming.
- Would you support U.B.I – universal basic income? “A COUNTRY that gives every citizen enough cash to live on whether she needs it or not”. It’s more than just recognizing uncompensated work (think full time parenting), but a recognition that the social contracts between individuals and employers are going away with a gig economy. From the NY Times – It’s Payback Time for Women.
- Yochai Benkler, Harvard Law School, speaks about the challenges of a shared economy (Airbnb, Uber, Taskrabbit, etc) of on demand service, the “Uberfication of services” and of which doctors are not immune. Though there is more flexibility for individuals, there is a shift of risk from organizations to individuals. The contract of worker and employer, the linkage of the social and economic aspect of work will split. Employers always will try to tear themselves away from obligation to social services (retirement, health care, living wage) in order to increase capital and ability of labor to the market. Unless there is a plan and social forces push back, Bencher expects massive deprivation. I think he’s right. This was also highlighted in a prior ICYMI. Note the lawsuit against Uber is the first wave of this battle.
Personal
- Read, learn and share! The things I enjoy the most! Did you read these books? Bill Gates: The Billionaire Book Critic. My favorite which has changed how I parent and live life is Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
- What does exceptional look like? It’s making a specific choice. Saw a recent great film – Kobe Bryant’s Muse (Showtime). “There’s a choice that we have to make as people, as individuals. If you want be great at something, there’s a choice you have to make. We all can be masters at our craft. But you have to make a choice. What I mean by that is, there are inherent sacrifices that come alone with that, family time, hanging out with your friends, being a great friend, right? Being a great son, nephew, whatever the case may be. There are sacrifices that come along in making that decision….”
- “If I’m gonna go down, I’m gonna go down my way and leading my way. And this team is gonna have my personality, they’re gonna have my grit, they’re gonna have my fight, they’re gonna have my will and my competitive spirit. So, when we step on that basketball court, you’re not facing me and just my competitive fire, but you’re facing, you know, twelve of those. And the challenge became: how do I get that done?
- For me, it is that ferocity or that anger, rage, and I can carry that with me. Now, I have to instill this to the rest of my guys and to the rest of my teammates. Using the darker emotions, the anger or resentment or frustration and sadness and using that as a weapon, using that as a form of offense. It’s a scar. It’s a pain. It’s a bad memory. Some people are probably afraid to tap into that side of them, but it’s such a powerful thing. Because once they own it themselves, then the sky is the limit because they’re going to drive themselves and pull it from who they are and all of their life experiences and things that have motivated them. I just started driving them, needling them. Right? Pushing them. They had to learn to embrace the villain nature that’s in all of us. It gave them a platform to unleash. (Lakers rebound from losing the 2008 NBA Finals to the Celtics, to winning back to back finals in 2009 (Magic) and 2010 (Celtics)).”
- What does exceptional look like? It’s about consistency so high level performance can always be reproduced. It’s not just working harder. And you gotta be passionate enough and insane enough to love the process of becoming exceptional in your craft. A focus on Steph Curry, NBA Golden State Warrior.
What did I miss? What else would you add?