Call to Action

Below is my monthly message for the August 2019 edition of the MHRI newsletter, Focus. You can view Focus online at MedStarResearch.org/FOCUS.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,


I had planned a great monthly message for you this week about artificial intelligence (AI). I was going to tell you about this fascinating conference I just came back from at University of Oxford and how MedStar investigators are making wonderful contributions studying the use of AI and machine learning to advance health through research. And then, I was going to top it off with the fact that MedStar is already starting to gain national recognition for this work, exemplified by a quote in Eric Topol’s new book Deep Medicine, where he calls MedStar Health out as a leading example!

That is the message I have been writing in my mind all week and it would have been exciting and uplifting…until this morning.

This morning, I woke up to the terrible news of two mass shootings in less than 24 hours. One of these shootings occurred in a mall as families were doing their back to school shopping. Just as the Annapolis shootings did last year, this one struck home. Just yesterday, David (my son) and I were browsing the shops in preparation for school. As we did this, I started reminiscing how, as a rising high school senior, this could be our last ‘back-to-school-shopping’ – but never in a million years could I imagine that it would be the last because of a shooting in such an innocent place as the mall.

So for my monthly message, I have a new, simple and important message. If you haven’t already, please go to the MedStar Starport page on what to do if there is an active shooter/Code Silver and watch the video. We all hope and pray that we will never need to use this information, but hope is not a plan. If the unimaginable ever happens, whether at work or with our family, we need to be prepared. This short video is the first step in getting prepared. For the sake of your loved ones and for those we care for at MedStar, please watch the video now.


While it is a sad morning for our country in this regard, if it calls us to action individually and as a society then something good will come of it. Please call yourself to action and watch the video, have those you work with watch the video and share it with those you care most about.

We do great things every day so let us make sure we plan for the worse as we work together to create the best of healthcare for the future. I look forward to advancing health with you and the generations to come.



Neil

Read Focus at MedStarResearch.org/FOCUS.





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