SpeakerLink.org

When I think of SpeakerLink.org, I think of the strength of a chain.  I think of the power inherent in each link and of the smiles of a little boy named Isaac.

When my son Isaac was only three years old his favorite toy was not a toy at all.  It was a chain.  It was a heavy 16-foot-long chain. He would drag it along the floor and pretend it was a boa constrictor.  He loved that “snake.”  He would lift its heavy coils of links and smile in ecstasy.  I suppose some parents would not let their children play with a heavy chain and lift its steel links.  But, I thought that as long as it was supervised play, it was a great type of play and fulfilled Isaac's need for deep pressure.

After all, as a child I too lifted chains.  My father was a junk dealer and he sold many types of chains.  I remember some links that were as big as my fist.  Those chains were so very strong.  I learned a lot about chains.  They were strong but flexible: able to bear great weight.

They were so strong because of the links.  Those beautiful curved zeros of steel would glide out of my hand as I placed them on the flea market stall floor.  One link after another would fall.  First on its edge then on the flat, I remember it as a repeating series of 1's and 0's gliding by like some type of iron-age binary code.   

The links were important in that they made the whole. A great burden could be lifted by the strength of such a chain.

I am inviting you to be part of a chain today, a really important chain.

For the past six months, the team from TMIT (Texas Medical Institute of Technology) and I have been working on a project.  Well, really they have been working on many projects.  They have made films on patient safety, worked on standards, and went to meeting after meeting with thought leaders on better patient care. 

But the one project I have worked with them on is Speakerlink.org.

Six month ago TMIT CEO Chuck Denham, MD, asked me what did I think was the most important thing TMIT could do to improve patient care, safety and advocacy.  I told him we needed a patient speakers bureau.  He and the rest of the team broadened that vision to include speakers from every segment of society who identified with a patient centric view.

Today our dream is a reality.  This is what you will see if you go to 

SpeakerLink.org

And if you click on find a speaker you will see this. 

If you scroll down you will see more speakers.  You will see more amazing people who have decided to change the world, who refuse to accept phrases like “that is just the way it is.”  You will see mothers who have lost sons and wives who have lost their husbands, you will see people who have lost so much. 

But they have not lost hope.

You will see people who have dedicated their lives to guiding health policy.  Individuals who have devoted years to health information technology and patient safety legislation have profiles on this site. And you will see regular citizens who have no training in rhetoric here as well.  They speak because they must.  They speak because they are brave and are willing stand up and speak out if they can make a difference by sharing their story.

But this site is missing something.  It is missing you.

Register as a speaker.  Speak for those you love.  Speak for the anonymous millions that exist as a cold data set with no emotional impact.  Be a speaker from experience with patients you have helped or as the patient you have become.

Be a speaker for the dead.

But most of all speak.  For your voice is mighty and true.  It swells and fills the auditorium and fills the mind.  You have the power to change things.  You have the power to be part of a chain reaction.

For the hospital boards, the-C suites, the QIO’s, the Physician and Nursing Groups, the Venders and the Patient Communities are all links in a mighty chain of care.  Speakers connect these groups, speakers go from place to place introducing new ideas, different cultures and share the wisdom stored in so many silos of medicine.  You can become the link I know you are; for you have been through the crucible and have come out the other side.  You have been forged into the finest steel: flexible yet strong.

So, here is my request.  Sign up.  Become a speaker.   Change the world.

The Man Behind the Camera

If you are as old as I am, you remember those special days in school: the movie days.  The days the teacher would walk to the head of the class and pull a projection screen over the outdated world map.  She would roll a squeaking metal cart to the rear of the room.  We would watch in awe and amazement as her deft fingers would unreel the spool of film and place it on the carriage.  She would turn on the film projector and each dust mote would gleam in the air.  Then she would advance the film and that wondrous noise: that pleasing repetitive fftht, fftht, fftht would fill the room. 

For the next thirty minutes we would fall into the world of the documentary. 

We would learn about big cats on the Savannah, or the division of a cell or the mathematics behind the construction of large buildings.  For thirty minutes the room would cease to be a slightly musty space filled with chalk dust, but instead became a theatre.  As a child, I would smile in delight on movie days, and be so thankful that the projector worked and the film did not break.

As an adult I thank all the documentarians that have created such delight in others.   I am thankful to know a handful of such amazing people.  One of those is Matthew Listiak (@MatthewListiak on Twitter) and this is Matthew’s Jacket in the Walking Gallery:  “The Whirling Dervish.”

I have known Matthew for almost a year, and for much of that time he was represented by face consisting of only one eye with a shock of red hair behind a camera.  He was the quiet one; he scurried between cameras and applied make up before the last shot.  He would look at the world with a furrowed brow.  He would pick the best light or angle for a shot.  He was like many filmmakers I have met, but one thing sets Matthew apart.  Matthew not only cares about the subject of his films, he is actively helping make the world of medicine a better place.

Matthew works with TMIT (Texas Medical Institute of Technology) as a Senior Producer.  He is intimately involved in the creation of the various quality and safety videos on the SafetyLeaders.org website.  He is one member of team creating the patient speakers portal that will go live in December.  He was a producer of the documentary Chasing Zero: Winning the War on Healthcare Harm that aired on the Discovery Channel.  And is a producer of the upcoming Documentary in the series: Out of the Danger Zone: Winning the War on Healthcare Harm. 

And all of these things make Matthew so very special.  For I have known filmmakers in my life, and many of them sadly shake their heads when they hear a patient’s tale of woe and sorrow.  But that expression of empathy is not followed by a call to action.  They do not funnel every bit of time or talent into a campaign to ensure cessation of harm.

But Matthew does.

Here is Matthew.  His bright blue eye looks upon the viewer with such depth of caring.  His other eye is mechanical: the camera itself, and he is recording.  He will ensure change by the active creation of new media.

To the right of this painting are the Whirling Dervishes.  These women spin first in meditation.  As they spin faster and faster they begin to relate to the divine.  Writ upon their skirts are the topics that fill the world of patient centered care.  “125 Million people living in chronic illness, disability or functional limitations,” says one quote from the Aligning Forces for Quality Conference.   Others skirts are adorned with websites and twitter hashtags.  Some of the Dervishes look up as a small child would, some look straight ahead focused on their own internal conversation.  And they spin and spin becoming a sort of projector for the media that Mathew creates.

At this point I feel the fright of the child inside me.  For I see the film has twisted, and I know it soon shall break and movie day will be undone.  We will no longer learn about these amazing things if the projector breaks.  If we stay too focused on our own conversations in our own closed medical communities, if we continue to merely spin our wheels and talk in a circular fashion about patient care, we shall fail.  We must each exist as a device to propel the story forward.  And through ourselves project the light we wish to see in others.

So this is Matthews Jacket. 

And this is the website Safetyleaders.org

It is filled with amazing content and media that Matthew has helped create.  And if you watch these films you will learn more about patient care and lives will be saved.

The projector only breaks when you fail to use these films as they were intended.