Preventative Medicine
My History in Healthcare
For six years, I was part of a team assisting a major American manufacturer with their highly injured workforce. For most of those six years, I directed our team’s data and strategic efforts, analyzing our outcomes from all angles, with one predominant conclusion: we saved this company millions in healthcare costs every year… by making their employees healthier.
As a Certified Athletic Trainer (ATC), I’m a licensed medical professional specializing in injury prevention, evaluation, immediate care, and rehabilitation. While I value all domains of my profession, the thing that sets us apart is our focus on injury and illness prevention. Most medical professionals don’t prevent injuries- instead providing care and rehabilitation when the unfortunate occurs. But what if many of these ailments didn’t exist to begin with?
A Failing Healthcare System
High Uninsured Rates and Our Unhealthy Lifestyles
My interest in data analysis led me to study the outcomes of the American Healthcare system, a system in which we spend twice as much as our peers and live lives 3-5 years shorter. Why is our money getting us so little in return? Isn’t this the opposite of capitalism? When I learned that our spending and lifespans were once similar to our peers in 1980 and that we’d fallen behind in the years since, I set out to discover where we’d faltered in the eighties, nineties, and beyond- and why our peers hadn’t. Why had a country like Italy gained five additional years of life expectancy in just forty years’ time? And why are they spending significantly less in the process?
There are many factors at play, but in my examination I found one thing most responsible for the failures of the American healthcare system: lifestyle. It’s not a glamorous answer, or a convenient one. It will require work- real work… not quick fixes. And yes, I believe everyone should have access to basic healthcare as a human right, like citizens of all other developed nations in this world. When there are 30 million uninsured people in the developed world, and all 30 million are American, we’re doing something wrong. But even if we find room in our healthcare system for the 30 million uninsured, it won’t change this fact: Americans have the worst health in the developed world.
My Mission
Eat Well and Move Well: Preventative and Lifestyle Medicine
I have a mission: to use my words and my knowledge to contribute to better human health and healthcare outcomes. I will continue to genuinely study the failures of American health and healthcare, why we’ve faltered since 1980, and what we can do to close the gap between us and our peer nations. One day maybe we’ll battle with countries like Japan, Italy, and Spain for the title of “healthiest in the world.” It won’t be easy. It’ll take time and work and real change- not quick fixes. It’ll require honesty about obesity, sugar consumption, and sedentary lifestyles. Because to change- and I mean really change- it’s not about that special one-month diet, or that eight-minute workout, or even that newfangled nine-minute workout, and it’s not about a certain supplement or herb or dietary trend. It’s about lifestyle. You must eat well and move well. Anybody that tells you otherwise is misinformed. Or they’re selling you something- probably a quick fix. Or both.
In addition to being a writer and preventative medicine professional, I’m a dog dad, musician, beer enthusiast, and a born-and-raised Alaskan.
Let’s change American health and healthcare. Instead of spending more for less, let’s spend less for more. Let’s ensure everyone has access to basic care- as a right- but let’s also improve American health by unearthing two undervalued and underestimated forms of care: preventative and lifestyle medicine.
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