Medical Artists: Reclaiming Medicine Through Creative Human Connection

2/21/17

Medical Artists: Reclaiming Medicine through the Creative Human Connection

Neel Desai, M.D.

This is our WHY.

This blog/website section was the result of my recent conversation with Taylor on his podcast

Taylor Brana interviews Dr. Neel Desai on The Happy Doc

I talked about my journey to being a happy family physician, father to a boy with a rare genetic condition, global health advocate, and dude who is a big believer in modern day medical art–the field of medical education entertainment–using engaging 21st Century digital communication platforms (You Tube, Facebook LiveCasts, Facebook, Twitter, Podcasts, ebooks, internet, etc..) to educate/entertain the medical and general communities.

If you have been around medicine in the past few years, you probably have noticed a growing disillusionment with physician career satisfaction and how medicine has become disconnected from the physician-patient relationship. To reconnect and re-engage with colleagues, patients, and our collective communities, we need to come up with 21st Century solutions to communicate our message. I present to you: The Medical Artist.

Medical Artists-About this Section:

As medicine in the 21st Century comes under control of multiple 3rd party masters–insurance companies, hospital administrator bean counters, government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, crappy EHR vendors–the ART of practicing our sacred craft becomes reduced to numbers, metrics, and commodities.

We’ve lost our physician autonomy.

Enter a new breed of 21st Century healers who are taking back our profession to educate, entertain, inform, and inspire the medical and general public–while at the same time–taking back our sacred profession from these 3rd party micromanaging intruders.

We call these 21st Century medical pioneers “Medical Artists”– for each has used a 21st Century digital communication platform form to bring their creative passions to the ART of practicing medicine–while espousing the ideals of truth, science, and healing patients and colleagues.

True artists in each of their own unique medical spaces, they have touched upon recapturing that joy and fulfillment of what we all call ourselves: Healer.

This blog is a space for creative artists–who are using these talents to take back our beloved profession–“making it their own”–to share ideas, connect, collaborate, support each other, have some fun, and kick some major f%&$@ pseudoscience ass!

Feel free to contribute as little or as much here as you would like. We hope to attract a new generation of healers who refuse to accept the status quo and truly want to be the change we want to see in medicine.

How do we get there?

1) Starts with thinking beyond everything you have ever been told about medicine, and a clean slate.

2) To re-create the healthcare system we need creative people and creativity. That’s what got you into medical school/training, so let’s get back to that. What’s your creative talent? Music? Dance? Drawing? Painting? Sculpting? Singing? Writing? Comedy? Acting? Magic? This is what makes better physicians–more relatable with patients and our colleagues–and just better humans.

3) Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Being vulnerable is what defines courage. And if you can connect with one person anywhere in the world, it is worth it. This is how we change for the better.

4) Have fun, be goofy, be silly. Humor is great for your mental and physical health, a great tool to make fun of things you think are wrong and get your message out there.

5) Get your friends and family involved–it will make it even more fun, and the more minds, the more ideas and creativity. Or feel free to contact Taylor or myself, as we both are very passionate about this project.

We are going to share examples of different physicians/physicians in training and how they have become Medical Artists  to help get their message out in their unique medical spaces.

Check out our Medical Artist Gallery and connect with us today!

Neel Desai, M.D.
Twitter: @drneel1973
Facebook: Neel Desai
drneel@hotmail.com