“Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves.” –Genesis 11:4

With these words, so begins the biblical story of the The Tower of Babel. The tale was written, at least in part, to explain the origin of different languages. Essentially, a group of earth’s early inhabitants started to build a tower to the sky in order to see with their own eyes God’s heavenly home. Alongside grandiose intentions, they worked and worked, up until God finally put a stop to the project by confusing the language of the workers. The building of the tower ceased.

On a daily basis now, my medical colleagues and I have been hoping for a similar divine intervention to take place within America’s healthcare system. Literally, Stop the Babel! sums up our humble request. Babel means a scene of noisy confusion, which is the most accurate description that I can give you regarding the current administration of medicine in this country. The current tower of babel is being built with a myriad of uniquely shaped bricks, many of which I’ve previously described to you, including the poor management of healthcare quality measures by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the failure of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) to provide value regarding physician certifications, the over-reliance on data in medicine, and the expanding beurocratic burdens that continue to move medical providers further and further away from being the centerpiece of healthcare delivery.

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