#OccupyHealthcare

Tuesday September 20, 2011 I met Ben Miller at the annual AHRQ meeting near Washington, DC.  You might know him as @Miller7 on twitter and his social media voice is loud and powerful. I have followed his wisdom for years, but on September 20th I had a chance to meet him in person.  He is a kinetic flame caught within a human form.  His slight body moves through the crowd like raindrops on a windowpane.  He is quick, unpredictable and oh, so very graceful.

He was wearing a three-piece suit and I offered to paint his jacket then and there.  He cocked his head to the side and smiled with an impish grin replying, “My wife would kill me if you did that.  This is my good suit.”  Not wishing to create martial discord I offered to paint another suit as soon as he could send one.  Then Ben invited me to attend his Mental Health Town Hall meeting the next day and I would paint the session.

I came to Ben’s session with my French Box Easel in hand prepared to weave through crowds in order to set up in the back of the room.  I was dismayed to arrive and find a room designed to seat 300 with about 50 attendees.  The room next door with its presentation about Partnership for Patients was filled to capacity.  Was there so much stigma attached to mental health that even attending our session was verboten?  I furiously began to paint. 

I painted the jacket The Stream during that session.  I spoke to Ben afterwards saying I would like to help him in anyway I could, and especially would like to spread the word on what he was trying to accomplish in the world of mental health and patient access to data and health records.  

Not long after he contacted me about his new twitter initiative and blog: #OccupyHealthcare inspired in part by the #Occupy movement on Wall Street.   Quite a few outspoken patients and providers had been saying some rather revolutionary things for quite a while now.  We would tag them #hcsm or #ptsafety, but now we had a new tag #OccupyHealthcare.  Ben created a site that would gather our words and magnify them and in the months hence he has taken on a lot of issues.

So this is Ben’s jacket: #OccupyHealthcare.  In this painting the ivory tower is personified.  Three careers stand tall before us.  A primary care doctor, a surgeon and an academic loom large within the composition.  They barely see the little people arrayed before them.  Their eyes seem disconnected and distracted; the surgeon cannot even stop from checking her smartphone in this moment.  Her eyes dart to the side as the small crowd forms beneath her.

The crowd consists of patients and providers waving banners that say things like: “ #Occupy Healthcare” and “Join Us!” with a twitter bird emblazoned on the sign.  All those in the crowd face the monolithic ones and we cannot see their faces.  But even with this limited ability to read intent, the viewer can see that is crowd is not angry.  This is a crowd of collaboration.  These arms are raised in welcome, not attack.  They are occupying the space.  They may be small and slight but they are many.  If you think small and slight cannot wreak havoc on old forms, ask any homeowner their feelings on termites.

Nature is designed in such a way that which is old and dead will be recycled into something new.  This can happen gradually through rot, mold and small creatures working diligently to deconstruct.  Or destruction can come in a wildfire of change, but even then nothing is wasted.  Cinders make great fertilizer and they are a key element in cinder blocks.

I am so happy Ben joined the gallery.  He is one of 148 Walkers that scurry to and fro from medical conference to medical conference.   At HDI in Washington DC on June 5-6, 2012, quite a few people were amazed how many jackets were at the conference.  One attendee said, “I used to only see a couple of these jacket paintings at a conference, and now they are everywhere I look.”

You see we paint on business jackets for a reason, they a type of Trojan horse.  A walker is invited to a conference.  He or she looks normal from the front.  They are allowed in and only then does it become apparent that the patient is in the room and the dialog must now change.

The Walking Gallery is a very simple concept; we are occupying Healthcare.

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.