CIS Physician Advisory Group

Back in 2004, Peter Lindenauer gave me a call and asked that I join a group he was convening that would help develop the vision for CIS. If you know your paleontolgy, you'll know that this was during the Jurassic era when internists saw their patients through the course of their care, whether in the office or the hospital.

We now know through carbon dating (however contested by the Kansas state board of education) that since 2004, there was a dramatic evolutionary shift of the punctuated equilibrium sort*. This shift yielded two subspecies of physicians, homo ambulatorus and homo hospitalus. I don't want to launch into a potentially divisive debate nor forget that there are vast populations of geographically versatile species (phylogentically speaking homo medicoversatilus, with innumerable subspecies). Rather, I'd like to call attention to the vast lands that this variegated collection of creatures roam outside of the hospital.

As I've mentioned in a previous post, 2010 promises to be a very productive year, particularly in the ambulatory environment. Not wanting to review these goals again (see post from 12-14-09), I just want to let folks know that I will be convening a group of about 20 docs from the five major departments (med, OBGYN, peds, psych, surg) with the primary intention of keeping a larger audience up to date. The meeting will be on a quarterly basis and will provide a high level overview of current developments and future projects.

One could say that "advisory group" is a misnomer. I'm choosing it because I am interested in the feedback I expect to receive and am also hopeful that this group will bring back information to a wider audience of colleagues. I don't expect that to be done on an official basis, but rather by generating some excitement by word of mouth. I will also try to post agendas and minutes for those meetings. Stay tuned.




(*Eldredge, Niles, and S. J. Gould (1972). "Punctuated equilibria: an alternative to phyletic gradualism". In T.J.M. Schopf, ed., Models in Paleobiology. San Francisco: Freeman, Cooper and Company, pp. 82-115. )