America's Bitter Pill by Steven Brill

Cool history about the backroom politicking involved in getting Obamacare passed. Reminded me of Remedy and Reaction by Paul Starr. Always disturbing to hear about the power of money in our political process.

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

Went over my head for the most part, but amazing to hear such a great mind express itself so precisely through the written word.

Flat, Hot, and Crowded

Couldn't finish it, just too repetitive. A lot of would've, should've, could've that just made me frustrated.

Talk Like TED by Carmine Gallo

Listened to a few chapters, and learned some interesting patterns about the most popular online TED talks, should probably finish the book to see what the other ones are, but most are common sense, like telling stories, identifying emotion, finding common ground with the audience, etc

My Antonita by Willa Cather

Really enjoyed the descriptions of place, and got a good sense of time, but found the story a bit restrained, almost censored. 

Adirondack Distance Festival

Slowest out of the three times I've done it

Mile splits as follows for first half

6:26

6:21

6:17

6:43

7:17

7:05

6:37

6:40

7:11

6:48

7:00

8:11

6:57

+40 sec = 1:30:18

"First Do No Harm: A qualitative research documentary" by Alyson and Timothy Holland

Medical tourism = medical voyeurism

- assumption that you can go to developing world and have an impact

- have a service mentality

- it's like outsiders coming to a trauma bay just to see amazing things

- exotic

Motivations

- travel

- experience

- resume

- work with and for communities

- going abroad to learn things that you're actually going to use?

So...

- good intentions are insufficient to warrant a trip

- humility that other ways sometimes work better

- consider each trip as entirely an educational experience, and attempt to have an experience with as little impact as possible

Assessing the impact and known harms of visiting healthcare professionals

- Often ineffectual

- steals resources from domestic learners and volunteers

- because you need community support, that community support requires person power

- can drain the systems they visit

- does your presence create a drain on the healthcare system (interpreters etc)

- lots of energy to get visiting people up to speed

- undermine local professionals by creating the appearance of higher quality care

Preparation

- often a majority is fundraising instead of culture and language training

- standards should remain the same, if you don't have the training, don't do it, you can always make things worse

- must be prepared to resist opportunities that exist without structured learning experiences (cowboy medicine)

So why do it?

- a good doctor can adapt to any condition

- a doctor is not just a doctor of their country, but a doctor of people who live in different countries 

Aiming for sustainability

- Only those who learn the language, spend years, and partnership

- Cooperative partnered collaborative where both sides gain

- donor recipient relationship abolished

- long term vision

- not a gap to fill, financial/knowledge transfer useful

- what can we learn from you?

- what can we do for you? (not help)

Minimizing the harms

- pre-departure training

- cultural sensitivity

- humility

- organized structure with goals and limitations

No such thing as global health, it's just health

- how can you serve health to people in different places

- what are we doing and why are we doing it?

- challenge our place in global health