Generally, the harder it is to explain to someone you’ve just met at a cocktail party what it is you do on a day to day basis, the more interesting the work you’re engaged in.

via Jackie

When people ask me what I do, I’m a bit at a loss for words. I typically say, “Well, I used to be a doctor.” But once a doctor always a doctor right? And then I say, “Well, I try to creatively make healthcare better.” But what the hell does that mean?

I create stuff. I build things online. I design real-world experiences and services that make healthcare easier to understand. I write about it. I speak about it. I poke and prod a bit. I sometimes make fun. I give it my all to get people to be interested in this nebulous thing we call health. I think each and every one of us will be saved by being conscious about our health and surrounding ourselves with an environment that makes being healthy easy. I try to get people to understand that being healthy is getting easier and easier for those who can afford it, with hopes that these new products and services will get cheaper and cheaper so that, in the near future, everyone will be able to afford to be healthy. Because, remember, when we were kids, Whole Foods, was something 100 hippies in California were eating. 

I still know I’m a doctor. I just don’t see patients one-on-one. A typical doctor has 1500-2000 patients they see in a given year in an exam room. They prescribe pills and do procedures, some necessary, some not. They get about 7 minutes of face time with you a few times a year. You forget 80% of what they say.

I reach a couple hundred thousand readers. I reach them every day. I do my very best to write about and reblog the things I think are most interesting and believe people need to hear. I can only hope that people read my writing, think about it, and then change something in their lives for the better.

I’m just a new kind of doctor. One that has yet to be defined, but one that I’m confident is adding a good bit of health to the world.