Funny how the blogosphere echoes some of the thoughts that have been incubating in my own mind… A few posts have caught my eye recently. One that I have been meaning to comment on was Dr. Vartabedian’s piece “Do You Initiate or Respond?” which characterizes physicians, in general, as trained responders rather than initiators [give it a look, it’s a quick read].
I had myself been concurrently pondering the same idea (though classifying it as reactive versus proactive in my own mind, but we mean the same thing). As Dr. V points out, doctors are reflexive and very much good at it. We are nimble thinkers on our feet when faced with problems, calculating a large number of variables to try solve problems in -let’s face it- a very short period of time, all the while doing our best to navigate through a myriad of emotions along the way. The importance of this notwithstanding, I wonder if immense talent is being untapped when leadership (aside from hospital/clinic administrative roles) and innovation is not instilled, honed, or even valued from the start of medical education to the end of one’s career.
After all, how much can one learn about leadership when working essentially in isolation (particularly in the outpatient setting) and with a compensation system that rewards “doers” more than “thinkers”? Sure, doctors can work effectively with their medical team and with patients. But the creative energy and solutions that can come from putting some of the brightest minds – ones who work on the frontlines of medicine – together to really tend to the larger problems in healthcare has been sorely missing.
Physicians who blog or create content online are Initiators, and their passion for innovation can awaken the creative part of the mind that has been quieted by the noise of daily clinical work. (If you tell me that part of your mind does not exist, you really have not gotten your head out of the charts for some time). And this is why I keep coming back to social media despite the growth of my full-time practice and its demands for my time. When used more as a learning tool rather than an advertising tool, social media can do more to teach a doctor about leadership and initiation than can a lifetime of working in a clinic or hospital.
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Pulsus 
That is great way of looking at social media, initiator and responders.