About

The purpose of Somanosis through the use of this blog is to highlight how we can improve the practice of medicine and enhance health by starting with ourselves. We don't make positive change in the system by instituting large medical programs via externally imposed standards from the government or insurers. We don't invoke positive feelings and behaviors about health and well being by forcing individuals into unnatural social networks or fake financial incentives. We don't benefit from selfish private or corporate interests that profit from the misery of others for the benefit of themselves. What we have is not sustainable and a new approach is needed. 

Specifically, we will be more successful if we challenge each other as fellow human beings and as a nation by:

• having honest conversations
• raising overall awareness and expectations
• optimizing our ownership and sharing of information and best practices and
• delineating the roles we all play within the larger ecosystem.

The roles I have defined within this framework have three pillars: the patient (told in the second person singular... because the intended audience is ultimately you as the reader, the consumer and the dreamer), the provider (told in the first person singular... because I am a physician) and the healthcare team (told in first personal plural... because I can't do what I do without the incredible support I receive from my staff).

Secondly, the framework by which the attitudes and actions are organized involves some research I have done on the very origins of medicine and the rediscovery of the humors. Complex problems call for simple solutions. In this case, I am raising the idea of balance and applying it to how legacy practitioners (the Greeks, in this case) already knew what to do for their patients by applying a broader context to the narrow field of medical healing, setting their sights on the heart, mind and soul in addition to the body.

Lastly, a very important and critical charge is to develop an agreed upon language that helps how we can communicate across these roles and boundaries for shared common ground. If we can build a clear understanding and vocabulary for the background of a person's statements, individuals giving and receiving the messages will be in better harmony with the what (content of the conversation) and the how (delivery). Aviation enacted brevity words and checklists years ago so the time is long overdue for us to do the same in medicine.

Take care.