Category: Books and Media I Recommend

Anyone out there trying to get a project funded?

Maybe, some of you are trying to get the attention of leaders in your organization to try an idea that is important to you?

Perhaps you’re frustrated that colleagues don’t agree with your viewpoint, and no one seems to listen?

Or, some say “your explanations are just so dry, we miss your entire point.”

Yes?

Consider: that in healthcare, and as scientists, we are taught to memorize our facts, build on scientific principle, and be rigorous. We rarely take the time to learn storytelling and communication. In fact the phrase “tell a story” in medical interview implies that you are lying.

Well, time to change all that. As informaticists, as medical professionals, as scientists, we need to be masters of storytelling. It is the ONLY thing that changes minds.

‘Sure, keep doing the great science that we all do, but let’s learn to communicate.

One of my favorite instructors in communication is Andy Goodman. At his website, you can sign up for his newsletter (and read archival issues, here is a good example about SMALL stories, and another one about Powerpoint use). His center is dedicated to improving the communication of all-important non-profit companies.

Here’s an example of his paradigm shifting ideas: “Why are non-profits named after things they are NOT? Why not name them for things they are FOR? Non-profits should be called “Public Interest companies.” Huh. How about that?

And, watch his talk above.

CMIO’s take? We all need to talk gooder.

https://physicians.ucdavis.edu/Custom/Photos/400.jpg

https://www-acpjournals-org.proxy.hsl.ucdenver.edu/doi/pdf/10.7326%2F0003-4819-138-9-200305060-00015

I came across this article again, written by one of my mentors, Dr. Faith Fitzgerald in 2003. I was always astonished that her discussions, and her talks, even at Morning Report, that off-the-cuff discussion of cases the morning after a busy overnight on-call, seemed to come out of her mouth, like fully formed medical textbook chapters.

As interns and residents, we were riveted, and also despaired that we would ever achieve that level of knowledge and mastery of medicine.

In fact, this worked directly against me, when, in my naiveté, I suggested that she use Pubmed, or the online search tool (in 1989!) to find relevant medical articles. As she would regularly devour volumes of medical literature, she could easily cite more relevant articles, and faster, than I could type in MeSH search terms. And, she never agreed that the introduction of electronic health records was a positive influence on healthcare in this country.

Nevertheless, I always looked up to her thoughtfulness, to her skill as a master clinician, and her writings. If you’re inclined, use “scholar.google.com” (to find research articles) and search for “Faith Fitzgerald” and “annals” and you’ll get numerous personal viewpoint articles she wrote for the Annals of Internal Medicine. They’re one page and beautifully written anecdotes.

“Dark Rounds” was a particular favorite (link above), about how a frustrated attending physician, in the too-busy environment of hospitals, teaching rounds, rush-to-discharge to shorten “length of stay” found a way to connect with her patients.

CMIO’s take? Master physicians like Dr. Fitzgerald are rare and precious. How do we grow more like her?

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When my book club decided to read “The Premonition” and I found out it was about the pandemic, I discovered that I was TIRED OF READING ABOUT THE PANDEMIC.

But, I underestimated Michael Lewis’s skill as a storyteller. I guarantee that you have not heard these stories. Not about Dr. Charity Dean, Santa Barbara County’s Public Health Officer. Not about the Wolverines, a shadow organization comprised of current and former federal government employees connecting resources and brainstorming ideas. Not about the fundamental structural problems and failures with the CDC since 1976.

I was entranced and raced through this book. It was complementary to the things I thought knew about the pandemic, having just lived through it.

The CDC does not come out smelling like roses. Neither do most federal agencies with political appointments. And Lewis dives into it incisively, following these personal tales where they lead.

He ends with a hopeful note, that Dr. Dean has left public service to found a private sector company called “The Public Health Company.” Maybe if the feds, our public health infrastructure, and the CDC cannot act effectively, those who DID act effectively in 2020 can become a consulting firm to private industry (there is immediate demand among large international companies for such services, advice and protection) and eventually support the federal government if we do not fix our pandemic responsiveness, when the next pandemic (and yes, it is coming) arrives.

CMIO’s take? I have new respect for public health officers. I have new respect for the CDC prior to 1976 and hope that this book points us to lessons on how to re-invigorate our federal institutions, and make them effective again. This is very readable, and worth your read.

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https://www.wired.com/story/a-newfound-source-of-cellular-order-in-the-chemistry-of-life/

Click the link and read about Condensates. Since middle school, when I first learned about cells, and then later learned about nucleic acids and “self-assembly”, it has always puzzled me how everything gets to where it needs to go, at the speed that life happens.

In the context of SARS-CoV2 (the virus causing Covid-19), how does the mRNA that is injected into the cell by the virus find the ribosomes that encode the Spike protein and assemble daughter viruses? How does the ribosome find all the amino acids among the millions of molecules to assemble the right proteins? How do the assembled proteins move to the right spots on the cell membrane?

I can imagine a lonely ribosome with an attached mRNA just WAITING for the right amino acid to come along to assemble the next link in the protein chain. How does it happen so fast?

If movement in a cell is dependent on just Brownian motion (random vibrations), it seems like it ought to take a LONG time (minutes? hours? days?) but it takes seconds.

Now it seems like Condensates are how this works.

CMIO’s take? Every time we think we know something about microbiology and that we know how deep the rabbit hole goes, the rabbit hole always goes deeper, my friends. What are YOU reading to expand your horizons?

So, based on an off-hand comment from a colleague about “just got that Chicken Attack song out of my head”, I went on a side journey and found THIS. How did I not hear of this before? How did you?

Be sure to keep the Closed Captions on. You won’t regret it.

CMIO’s take? We should all aspire to this level of joy (and yodeling).