Dr. Bilhartz,

Love the Disney comparison! Last April I took my family on a Disney cruise. We are still talking about it. In fact, I was so impressed that I, too, wanted to learn more about Walt. Turns out, he was an innovator who pursued his passion when those around him (Ivory Towers dwellers?) told him that there was no future in animation. No future in animation!! Amelia, my five year old, devoted Frozen fan would flatly disagree with these stodgey Disney haters. Also, turns out, he despised meetings. He viewed them as wasteful exercises that held its members captive from actually solving problems and creating! No wonder he innovated, created, and built a legacy that we are still writing about nearly 100 years after he got started.

Medicine is in a bad place right now. To provide the value our patients deserve we often are battling ourselves and the last Task Force we created thinking that somehow it was supposed to solve some problem in a board room of executives over coffee and bagels. What would Walt think of our approach?

We can do better in medicine. We can provide more value. We can practice the way we are called to practice. Our patients deserve it and will soon (many already are) demand it. This is a golden opportunity to right the ship. In adversity we find opportunity. No one will argue that the practice of medicine is currently free of adversity.

This post, your book, and this blog are an excellent format to generate momentum of needed reform – from the grassroots level. I for one, will stay in the trenches because our patients are so much more entertaining than those meetings!

Peace,
Seth

Seth Sullivan, MD, MPH