This weekend was the Association of American Medical Colleges' Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. The world of medical school academics is pretty new to me, so it really was a great opportunity to attend--it's just, wow--a lot of information to receive and process in a very short time (and on a beautiful weekend, too--very hard to stay focused when the sun is shining and the leaves are changing).
One of the highlights was Malcolm Gladwell speaking on Sunday. As the author of Outliers, he is one of my favorites for pop psychology, and his address did not disappoint. He weaved the story of Civil War General "Fighting Joe" Hooker with the story of the now defunct Bear Stearns firm to craft an allegory of how it is not those that are incompetent that wreak the world-changing calamaties that befall us--it is those we presume to be experts in their field that generate the most damage. An interesting thought, and one that he felt had parallels in medicine and possibly medical reform. (As an aside, Joe Hooker lost the battle of Chancellorsville, VA despite superior numbers, and the Bear Stearns executive blamed everyone but himself for the firm's failure--no tears for him, I'm sure he is living well)
Before seeing Gladwell, I ran into a prior teacher from FSU--Dr. Hurt! She was my first medical instructor and is still a vital part of the now four year medical school.
Today, as a break from the conference, I got to work with some swell Army medical recruiters at a military/health day fair at VCU in Richmond. SSG Pursell and gang are a good group, and did a nice job informing, instead of selling, students. VCU has a strong biomedical engineering program, and we talked to some very intelligent students--here's hoping some of them go Army! We're always looking for good colleagues.
No comments:
Post a Comment