Tuesday, December 2, 2008

I will be a positive deviant!

In the spirit of positive deviation from the mean (Positive deviant = my new favorite term and my life aspiration), here are my notes on how I do against Atul Gawande’s advice for becoming a positive deviant

1. Unscripted question –I admit, I get stuck on the old “How are you”. So from now on, I’m going to make a pointed effort to ask people (if I don’t know) where they grew up. CPRS has really helped me to bring my questioning down the ladder of inference at least!

2. Don’t complain –ah this is one of my favorites. I HATE it when people complain; I do think there is a difference between productive and unproductive complaining. Complaining and doing something about it =acceptable.
Just complaining = not acceptable.

3. Count something –Atul is my long-lost twin. What don’t I count? I have recorded every single one of my runs since January 1 of this year, where I run, what time of the day I run, the total distance, and the total time. At work, I count the total number of patients I’ve supported via Consultation Planning and Recording (without looking at my notes, I know its around 60). For BCT.org, I record weekly tallies of how many trials are being coded and how many I still have to work on. As track captain I spent more hours then I am willing to admit counting and recounting in what ways we could place at Heps or beat Yale. I’ve even started recording the time of day I wake up and go to bed to see if my sleep cycles mess up my energy or mood. Ok, maybe I overdo the counting sometimes….

4. Write something –duh why do you think this blog exists?

5. Be an early adopter –I pride myself on this one, here is a list of things I’ve been an early adopter for among my own ‘society’ (i.e., people I know: my family, friends or peer group):

• BLOGGING - writing blogs, reading blogs, commenting on blogs, getting others to write blogs, health care blogs, patient-advocate blogs, political blogs, PCT hike blogs, athletic blogs (In case you didn’t know, I think blogs are the best thing since sliced bread)
• Shutterfly.com photo sharesite
• Geni.com –cool family social networking website
• Using interpreters during CPRS for those who do not speak/understand English
• Nikeplus band (thus my ability to record all the details about my runs)
• Iphone –life changing, democratizing awesomeness
• OBAMAMANIA –April 7th 2007 is when I donated $5 and urged my family to do the same to support Barack Obama’s campaign.
• Photobooks –so cheap, so small, so easy
• Self-publishing (lulu.com) –shout out to Lilly Zhang and her newly published children's book that you can buy on amazon.com
• Working at the UCSF Center of Excellence in Breast Cancer Care –everything at my job is on the forefront of medical care for women with breast cancer thanks to Laura Esserman and the incredible team she has built. Can you tell I love my job?
• Composting –props to my roommates Jaline and Andrea for this one
• Bartering –babysitting for garage space = sweet deal
• In the future: Health informatics –I will be a strong advocate of web-based medical systems as a clinician

In the spirit of change and becoming a positive deviant –do you have an experience in which you were an early adopter? Please use the comments section of this post to tell me about it!

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