Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1953 to 1987, and was Speaker of the House from 1977 to 1987, was famous for having said that “All politics is local.” I believe he was saying that you come to understand issues more comprehensively when they touch you directly and personally. 

For example, I could study asthma for many years and, someday, come to feel proficient at diagnosing and caring for asthmatic patients. But it’s completely different if I, myself, also carry a diagnosis of asthma; or if my young son develops it and suddenly needs his family to accommodate nebulizer treatments twice a day, effective immediately; or if you grew up with a sibling whose childhood years included several trips to the emergency room and several missed days of school each and every winter. That’s a completely different kind of understanding.

This post is a call to physicians, clinicians, my blog readers, and you, the patients for whom we care. Continue reading →