Photo Friday: Servant Leadership, DC Style

Anita and Trenor

This week’s photograph was taken at Washington, DC’s Loeb’s New York Deli , and has Anita Samarth and Trenor Williams, MD, assisting fellow customers with their breakfast meals. This kind of thing just happens in a city/state that’s the #3 most extroverted in the United States.

The occasion of our breakfast was a monthly dialogue of a group of mid-Atlantic health information technology professionals that get together regularly to learn from each other and and to believe that everything is possible, because it is. Here’s a photograph of the full smiling group (except for me, the photographer…).

Clinovations

3 Comments

Lygeia,

You were definitely missed, and your story points out that not just your daughter's life was disrupted, but yours was, and ours was, by not being engaged by your presence. It reminds me of what I learned about practicing with a PHR, which is that there are always many people outside of the exam room that we are serving, besides the patient.

Your story also reminded me of one about innovation making it into healthcare faster. Some healthcare systems have looked at the evidence around treating pinkeye and have created telephone protocols for managing these safely, just as has been done for managing urinary tract infections over the phone. Still, only a few health systems seem to put this into practice,

Ted

Ted —

Good point about the hidden impact of health–such hidden costs (and benefits) associated with health IT (and other aspects of health) are difficult to measure, so they seldom make it into financial calculations about which investments are most worthwhile.

Hmmm. I wish our pediatrician provided pinkeye support by phone. For now I've been jarred into starting a rudimentary PHR for my daughter so at least I'll have a good record of her care.

– Lygeia

Ted Eytan, MD