Family physician, author, blogger, speaker, physician leader.

Tag Archive for Malcolm Gladwell

Is David Goldhill Fix For Health Care Right?

First I believe our health care system must be better so I’m always curious to hear how others might propose to fix it. I recently had the opportunity to listen in two conversations with businessman David Goldhill about how healthcare might be made better. Goldhill lost his father to a hospital acquired infection and witnessed multiple errors during his hospitalization which compelled him to write not only a piece in the September 2009 Atlantic titled How American Health Care Killed My Father, but also a new book titled, Catastrophic Care: Why Everything We Think We Know about Health Care Is Wrong (Vintage). The first conversation was with New Yorker writer and best selling author Malcolm Gladwell. The second with Professor Ashish Jha, MD, MPH of Harvard medical school and Harvard School of Public Health. Does his solution offer the right prescription? Maybe. Maybe not. As a practicing primary care doctor passionate […] Read More »

Rock Health, Enterpreneurs, Doctors and Witchcraft?

I recently viewed health care through the lenses of a technology entrepreneur by attending the Health Innovation Summit hosted by Rock Health in San Francisco. As a practicing primary care doctor, I was inspired to hear from Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel, listen to Thomas Goetz, executive editor of Wired magazine, and Dr. Tom Lee, founder of One Medical Group as well as ePocrates. Not surprising, the most fascinating person, was the keynote speaker, Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems as well as a partner in a couple venture capital firms.  “Health care is like witchcraft and just based on tradition.” Entrepreneurs need to develop technology that would stop doctors from practicing like “voodoo doctors” and be more like scientists. Health care must be more data driven and about wellness, not sick care. Eighty percent of doctors could be replaced by machines. Khosla assured the audience that being part […] Read More »