Practical/Practice Philosophy

In lieu of writing a bio like most would, I thought it would be more valuable to give a little insight into my practice philosophy, and in doing so, an insight into my day-to-day practical philosophy. A more traditional bio may be found on other sites or on my LinkedIn.

I stumbled across a definition of philosophy from Epicurus that said that philosophy was the salve to heal the suffering of life. What has become apparent to me is that as a healthcare provider, it is unavoidable to become obsessed with the treatment of disease. The treatment of disease, however, is not the same as treating a patient. To treat a patient, we must see the humanity first, then the disease, and recognize that to actually heal the suffering, we ourselves must also be the healing. We must be driven by a philosophy - to heal the suffering of life. We have to realize the reason for treatment matters just as much as the treatment itself. As a lifelong student of philosophy, I am slowly understanding that the philosophy informs the practice, and also happens to make the most practical sense.

I've had many influences throughout my career, but one of the biggest came from my predecessor Dr. Todd Shockley, may he rest in peace. He would visit me and give me advice here and there after he retired, but it always stuck with me how he would say, "Make it a win for the patient." Whenever there was any conflict, making it a win for the patient would always be the right answer. It made me think about what is a win anyway if you aren't playing a game? But we are all playing a game in life, the only question is if we are playing the infinite game or the finite game. The beauty is that if you keep focusing on winning the infinite game, losing a couple finite games becomes ok. Dr. Shockley won the infinite game by my read of things. I used to get sad when I'd think about him every day since he passed (it's hard not to because I see his work every day), but now I think of how he won the infinite game by making wins for so many patients in his practice and people throughout his lifetime. Myself included.

Susan David, in her TED talk, refers to the Zulu word for hello, Sawubona, and it's literal translation, "I see you, and by seeing you, I bring you into being." This has become an aspiration of mine to embrace this level of recognition of the humanity in others. I feel it's a necessity as a doctor, to see you and not only that, to bring you as a cohesive being into my mind. Another big influence of mine is The Little Prince book, and in it there is a simple but profound quote that says, "What is essential is invisible to the eyes." At the reconciling of these two ideas is where I live my day-to-day life. As a doctor, I aspire to see my patients and everyone I meet by realizing what is essential about them is that which is invisible to the eyes.

-CK, DDS