President’s Message

The Renaissance Physician

Ryan Greiner , MD

Donatello was an Italian sculptor whose work was highly influenced by the revival of interest in the sciences, mathematics and architecture that was taking place in Florence during the 15th century. He was a master of many mediums: stone, bronze, wood, stucco, clay and wax which were foundational in his discovery of new possibilities in materiality. He advanced the traditional artistic focus on the realm of religious expression into an exploration of the human’s place in the natural world. He was and remains a forefather of the Italian Renaissance and was considered to be the first to illustrate the art of sculpture among the moderns. But what of our age… In our modern age of increasingly specialized and technologically-driven medical care, the traditional role of the physician is evolving and changing. As I have written previously, the advancement of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and sophisticated software applications have the potential to replace many of the diagnostic and analytical components of medical care and perhaps may someday even encroach upon the manual application of our craft. In the meantime, increasing clinical specialization, artificially created care networks and the drift toward emotionally depersonalized medicine has created fragmented care which challenges our ability to address the fundamental basis of clinical practice —the human interaction. So I pose the question, “Who will guide us into this future?” A renaissance individual is a well-educated and sophisticated person who has talents and knowledge that span many different areas of study, but also has the skill to recognize the interplay between these subjects to devise and create novel applications of their most interesting and applicable characteristics. Medicine is ripe for the emergence of the Renaissance Physician to become central to our future. The complexity of our healthcare systems, the increasing understanding of the primacy of “non-medical” determinants of health and well-being, the need to find balance between health care as a right but maintain it as a commodity, and to ensure the sustainability of the practitioners of our craft—all these things demand the Renaissance Physician to emerge as the thought leader and convener of vision and progress. But who is this person? They may have always been here… How timely, this edition of MetroDoctors and its focus on primary care. The generalist as the craft of all things—the counselor, the researcher, the existentialist and the technical master. Birth to death—the generalist follows us on our path through life, attending to our emotions, our fears, our indecision and most importantly our health and well-being. They bring us into the world, manage the disruption of our adolescence, deliver our babies, prevent, delay, and treat the diseases of age and lifestyle and guide us on our passing and death. What could be more renaissance... The primary care physician, the generalist, is and should be one of our most cherished assets within our profession. To be true, in many places they are appreciated for what they bring to their communities and organizations. Yet, in too many places and in many ways, they are taken for granted, reduced to the idea of an RVU and placed in an artificially constructed productivity model that emphasizes numbers rather than people. Imagine if we embraced all they had to offer, all that is represented in this edition of MetroDoctors. Imagine if we consistently recognized and appreciated the renaissance of their specialty. It would change how we care for and guide the health and well-being of our communities and people. So, I invite you to take a minute to offer your appreciation to all your generalist and primary care colleagues for all they do for your patients, organizations and communities. Offer them a place at the table of decision making and embrace their opinions, struggles and aspirations. Allow them to lead the Renaissance that will be the next 50 years of our craft. We, at the Twin Cities Medical Society, stand ready to support and convene the Renaissance of the primary care physician. Join us at that table and make your membership about the vision for the future —a shared experience of our love and concern for each other and the patients we serve each and every day.