Who Is Going To Be The Savior Of Modern Medicine ?

Sir William Osler is often referred to as the "Father of Modern Medicine". His many famous quotes and "Oslerisms" are legendary. Perhaps my favorite one of Sir Osler's quotes is, "Medicine is the Science of Uncertainty and the Art of Probability". A better definition of medicine I have never heard. We certainly see this playing out before our eyes now. Yesterday I was discharged from a 5 day stay in the hospital with what turned out to be double pneumonia. When my family left me at the doors of the ER in the middle of the night everything was uncertain and of course Covid-19 was possible if not probable. For the first 72 hours I caught a first hand glimpse of what a patient suspected of having the Corona virus experiences. To say it was surreal would be an understatement. It will actually take me awhile to process the whole experience but suffice it to say after my 2nd Covid test came back negative I could breathe a little easier, relax a little more and think once again about the future instead of the past and present. It was at this point during my admission that I became addicted to the History Channel. Great content and I really enjoyed "The Men Who Made America" about Carnegie, J.P. Morgan and Rockefeller. But what I really became enamored with was the 3 piece documentary produced by Leonardo DiCaprio called "Grant". I admit that I despised history throughout my school years but for some reason this story about the life of Ulysses S. Grant captivated me. Once again, just like the story of Jim Allison Ph.D (Nobel Prize in Medicine), it reminded me how God will use ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Grant is a must watch for everyone as it is so well done , tells a multifaceted story about personal struggle, vision, perseverance, courage, leadership , compassion and sense of purpose. For those of us interested in health care reform ( OK this is where I will circle back and land try to land the plane, sorry still have a low grade fever) it is interesting to think that the war we need to declare now is the the war on the broken US health care system . We are going to have to form party lines similar to the Union and the Confederacy and once again it comes down to human rights and the equality of all human life. Covid-19 is disproportionately attacking and killing people of color. It is also highlighting the fact that social and racial disparities in our health care system have existed for decades before this pandemic attacked us. These disparities will continue to exist and worsen after this pandemic leaves us. Then what ? Back to health care business as usual ? I think not. The revolutionary invention of the telegraph transformed the ability for military leaders to communicate almost in real time during the Civil War. The ability to communicate effectively enhanced decision making , strategy and outcomes. Our ability to now communicate digitally and transfer information immediately with almost everyone in the world is one of our greatest assets in fighting our battle to improve patient outcomes and reform health care. It is absolutely imperative that we use digital health care to the best of our ability to decrease the disgraceful racial and social disparities in our health care system. As the civil rights activist John E. Lewis once said, "If not us, then who ? If not now, then when ?" And as Martin Luther King, Jr. said so eloquently, "Of all forms of inequalities, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane." Yes we might have ended slavery in this country, but have we replaced it with a system that is equally if not more devastating. Could one make a case that our current health care system suffers from an inherent disease that significantly impacts public health ? Is that disease a severe case of "Racism" ? History will look back and will judge our generation by our actions. I am not sure based on the current facts what their opinion of us will be, but if nothing changes I can only guess. Perhaps they will say we traded one form of slavery for another, made it more subtle and not so obvious but just as inhumane and destructive. They say George Washington was the "Founding Father of our Country" . It is also said that the unsung hero and the "Savior of Our Country" was Ulysses S. Grant. After watching the 3 part History Channel documentary on this amazing man I would agree. I hope and pray that just like we were blessed with Sir William Osler as the"Father of Modern Medicine" , an unlikely unsung hero emerges soon to lead us into true and lasting heath care reform and becomes the "Savior of Modern Medicine" . Perhaps then, we can finally achieve, once and for all, what we claim that we stand for , what so many have fought and died for, that everyone is created equally and must be treated equally. With the recent brutal death of George Floyd in Minneapolis we are forced to look into the mirror and admit that 400 years of slavery and injustice in one form or the other must come to an end. We must take our collective knee off of the neck of people of color in this country and it must begin with our health care system now !