5.03.2008

LeaderShape 2005

"I envision a society where healthcare is free to the entire global community. There is no price on humanity; therefore the chance to save someone's life or to cure someone should not be dependant on the availability of resources such as money or medicines."

In August of 2005 I attended LeaderShape, a week long leadership development program through my university, Georgia Tech. The vision statement above is a product of that week and it has been printed onto a large poster that hangs on the back of my bedroom door to remind me every day of what I hope to work towards for the rest of my life: a truly univeral healthcare system.

This vision statement was a product of several events that had recently occured my sophomore year. I spent a good majority of my time re-evaluating my major and deciding if medical school is really where I want to end up. Coincidentally, that year I discovered the field of public health, the amazingness of Dr. Paul Farmer and my first exposure to the US Peace Corps through a small advertisement in the Technique. However this vision statement was also the product of my general life experiences. My career path has always been in the direction of entering the healthcare industry. Although my parents always wanted me to become a doctor (it was the "Indian" thing to do and someone needed to take over my father's practice) I realized that if I was going to be one, it had to be on my own accord. Since I've always been interested in infectious diseases, global issues, and medical humanitarian assistance, the field of global public health seemed like a perfect fit for me. Additionally, after spending time in many different countries all over the world, I came to notice the incredible amount of healthcare inequality that existed in the world, from the state-of-the-art medical hospitals in the USA to the abject poverty of beggers with no limbs on the street corners of Bangalore, India. These experiences together helped me recognize the direction I want to take in my life and where my passion lies.

Ever since I wrote the vision statement, I have attempted to begin a conversation on health. I have talked to my family, my friends, my co-workers and a plethora of people in the healthcare industry. Based on this conversation I have come to the realization that health is more than mere medicine; good health comes about when all factors in one's life (financial, emotional, social and physical) are balanced. A myraid of external variables, external in the sense of affecting from outside the body, can have a detrimental effect on one's health. This is why a conversation on health is not just one about health in the medical sense but also a conversation about economic development, anthropology and even politics.

This blog therefore came to be not just from my vision statement but also from this conversation. So let's talk...