These days, there’s a lot of talk in healthcare about caring for “the whole patient.” But what does that mean?

Already, there are AI programs that do a better job reading EKGs and chest x-rays than experienced cardiologists and radiologists. Can robotic anesthesiologists and dermatologists be very far behind?

When you’re carrying a piano on each shoulder while riding a unicycle, the appropriate question isn’t: “How do I find balance?” It’s: “What the f*#%k are we doing?”

Giving feedback skillfully is a daunting task. You can’t expect to be Jimi Hendrix on your first gig.

Remember, even the right decision isn’t right if you can’t get anyone else to agree. 

There’s a reason there aren’t six-foot-long amoebas or 200-pound flatworms. It’s the same reason you can’t organize a large healthcare organization as if it were a small group practice.

Why can’t a provider be more like a leader? They can, if you give them a way to lead.

A safe, collaborative, trust-based culture isn’t a nice adjunct to productivity--it’s the whole basket of eggs.

This is a blog about medical leadership, so today I want to say a few things about … baboons

For most systems, it’s an open question whether or not they can afford to pay their providers enough to do the work they’re asking them to do.

thank you

There’s a simple truth that most healthcare organizations never come to terms with: medical school isn’t leadership training. As a matter of fact, it’s one of the worst places you could possibly go to learn leadership skills.

It was as if I had detonated a privilege bomb in the middle of the hospital room. 

It’s not that mistakes have less to teach us--it’s that our tolerance for examining them is much lower than for basking in our success. And without curiosity and self-examination, there can be no learning.

When something isn’t working the way it’s supposed to, interrogate the system. And if you don’t think you have a system to interrogate, think again.

Culture evolves slowly. Often, a custom or habit hangs on in our institutions long after it becomes outmoded and ineffective. Like a troublesome little appendix dangling from our collective cecum, it persists even though its usefulness has disappeared. The traditional model of leadership is one such vestigial organ.

These are words that get batted around a lot. It’s easy to assume that everyone means the same thing when they use them, but in my experience, that’s not the case.

Someone once told me that the difference between leaders and managers can be seen on their calendars.

When all hell is breaking loose, how do we get our teams through to the other side? I think we can learn a few lessons from a situation we’ve all experienced, that arrives out of the blue, and that is literally a matter of life and death: the code.

In medical training, we’re encouraged to pretend that we have no limits. One more admission? Okay, I’m on it. One more work-in visit? Okay, I guess the patient needs to be seen. To do less would be bad form. It would be “not patient-centered.” It would make us look “weak.”