The ranting will continue until morale improves

To anyone bothering to read this blog, a few notes about the recent barrage of posts on health care reform (HCR), I just want to say why I'm ranting so much. Here are two (somewhat) unrelated thoughts as to why:

1) If you go to med school, you have decided you want to get into the health care "game." Therefore, you become a part of this "game" - you and it are linked. Like in avatar, you take your pony tail and fuse it with the health care dragon. You and it form a connection. To deny this is to not just be ignorant; it almost suggests nihilism - if you fail to care about what you do for the majority of your life, how can you say you really care about anything?

2) Empathy. Empathy. Empathy. The very best doctors all have empathy. And cultivating a sense of empathy is a lot harder than it seems. I think that, at the age of 26, I'm only beginning to think about how to live with a sense of empathy. It's perhaps the most important quality one can have. After all, we care for other human beings. That might sound cheesy, but it's the truth.