Taking It To The Streets

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks here at ZDoggMD Industries. We’ve been on the road spreading the word about fixing the culture of healthcare. Another airport, another accursed Cinnabon tempting me out of my ketotic fugue.

 

Essentials of Emergency Medicine

I’ve spoken at this conference for three years in a row now. Around 1700 rabid emergency medicine docs crammed into the San Francisco Marriott to learn about such ER-specific topics as how to free climb El Capitan while crapping in a bag. EXTREEEEEEEEME!

It was a blast and I got to chill with such luminaries of emergency medicine as Dr. Mel Herbert, the conference organizer and EMRap guru, Dr. Scott Weingart of EMCrit, Dr. Rob Orman of ERCast, Dr. Richard Levitan of airway management fame, and a litany of others whose names shall be omitted as I’m pretty sure publishing them would violate their parole.

We had a great time, I learned a lot, and I got to spread the word about Turntable Health to a crowd that desperately wants someone other than themselves to be the patient’s primary care doc.

 

Turntable Health…Arise!

Then it was back to Vegas to watch in awe as our Turntable Health clinic construction enters its final phases. With a planned opening date of Dec 17th, it’s never felt more real, y’all!

 

Mid-Atlantic Permanente Group Physicians Meeting

Hopped on a United jet to DC where I had the honor of sitting next to a massive German man with incredible body odor. But the sour kraut was worth it! I got to talk to hundreds of Kaiser system docs, including their CEO Robbie Pearl and the amazing Dr. Bernadette Loftus. The craziest part? I got to talk AFTER Capt. Chesley Sullenberger and author Malcolm Gladwell! Talk about a “Tipping Point!” A “David vs. Goliath!” Hopefully, I didn’t “Blink!” OK, I’ll stop now.

Sully was amazing, both in person (I had the honor of spending 5 minutes shooting the breeze with him) and on stage. He spoke passionately about a culture of excellence and safety, where we work not for the good of a company that “often doesn’t deserve it”—i.e., airlines, hospitals, medical groups—but for the good of the people we are helping. And when he spoke of how he had been preparing his entire life for the 208 seconds by which he would ultimately be judged…well, I wasn’t crying, I just got allergies, that’s all.

Then I did my own talk, and they laughed, they cried, and it may have been marginally better than “Cats.” But what blew me away was the energy and hopefulness of this band of East Coast docs. I had the privilege of talking with them at length afterwards; what an amazing crew, many of them immigrants from around the world. Inspiring.

But my favorite part of the experience was this. Malcolm Gladwell—with whom I spoke briefly while he looked at me like I was some sort of odd alien…he signed my book “To Zuvin” which in fact SOUNDS like an alien—spoke to the docs about the advantages of being not the first to bring an innovation, but the THIRD. From the state of Israel to Steve Jobs, it seems being later to the party signified a greater chance of success.

So when I described Turntable Health’s model—flat fee rather than fee-for-service, integrated care tied together with a great EMR, docs collaborating rather than competing, true population and community health—I mentioned that the Kaiser model had literally invented some of these ideas and brought them to the table first. Accountable Care Organizations were second to the party.

But at Turntable Health, we’re shooting for third.

 

 

Related Videos