All Star Teams

Today we continued yesterday's conversation based on Dr. Gawande's ideas of improving our health care system (can only cover so much in a mile!). Another missing aspect in healthcare is teamwork. Most physicians these days are specialists. And most serious illnesses require the involvement of several specialists. Yet they don't work as a team. Instead, each doctor does his thing mostly independently. Imagine a team of engineers designing a car: one responsible for the brakes, the other for the transmission, another for the suspension, and so on. Yet they never get together in a room (physical or virtual) to make sure all the pieces work well together. Instead, each engineer designs what he considers is the best possible component. We would end up with a Frankencar! We watched Moneyball the other day so the kids got this right away. They immediately pointed out that, not only is teamwork essential, but the members of each team must be selected so that they complement each other and can work well together. Just trying to assemble the best at player for each position wont work. Not exactly how health care works...