President's Message
Outer Space Technology and Inner Space Spirituality:
Solving Our Problems at Home

By Samuel Wilson, M.D.

At the time of this writing the Mars Rover Spirit's technical difficulties are being overcome as it attempts to explore the red planet 35 million miles away. Its sibling, Opportunity, has descended successfully to the other side of Mars. It seems once again that the only limitation on earth is one of imagination. If we can reach the planet Mars, surely we have the imagination and opportunity to design a health care system that serves everyone. One that educates providers and consumers of healthcare, collaborates with the media in promoting healthy lifestyles, provides early interventions in the schools and reinforces positive home and community values. In addition, it would design and maintain healthy ecological structures such as safe buildings, playgrounds and communities that encourage physical activity, healthy food choices at eating establishments and restaurants, and supports spiritual well being and mental wholeness (http://www.dhs.cahwnet.gov/ps/cdic/cdcb/Chronic/CHDSP/html/heartsmartcities.htm).

It has been said that where the necessary technical expertise to move mountains exists, then the faith that moves mountains becomes unnecessary. But would the technical expertise have developed without some element of faith? I believe that supporting the visible world is an invisible world that responds to our hopes motives and intentions. Our present reality will respond to action motivated by our best intentions. Health care today often appears to be "high tech, not high touch." We rely far more on objective data from machines than on the warmth of a doctor's voice or a nurse's hand. I believe that with the combination of outer space technology and inner space spirituality we can not only explore our solar system but also solve the very mundane problems of living at home.

Spirituality is best defined as a relationship between ourselves and something larger or of greater importance such as the good of our patient or the welfare of our community. {Spirituality and the Physician Executive, by Leland R. Kaiser, Ph.D.} http://www.kaiser.net/kc/html/speakers/kaiser/publications/physicianexecutive.htm

The characteristics of a spiritual profession include placing the community's interest first even before our own, a communitarian perspective. While trying to do well (economically) our profession should be best known for doing good. Our health care community already does a great deal to identify unmet needs and promote social justice, but this identity is by no means complete. We must never cease to identify and address new needs, new marginal groups, and new challenges and new solutions.

The San Bernardino County Medical Society and Inland Wellness Information Network have ventured down this path through participation in outreach programs including "Live and Then Give," an organ and tissue donor awareness program; the Medical Reserve Corps, and the African American Health Initiative. We encourage a different perspective through the participation in an approach to health care where physician effort collaborates with the media, legislators, schools and churches to focus on particular health problems. Nationally, these partnerships exist in efforts such as Breast Cancer and Prostate Cancer Awareness months. However, our approach is different because San Bernardino County physicians participate individually in the planning, development, implementation and evaluation of public health awareness campaigns, and public health initiatives. Such collaboration provides a multifaceted approach to disease promotion and prevention that is much more effective in decreasing the burden o lifestyle preventable chronic diseases and disability.

The medical society is taking part in research projects that help to identify people at risk of chronic diseases and to identify modalities that increase participation of the affected communities so they can positively influence their own health and well being. Collecting such data enabled the CDC to develop the Atlas of Stroke Mortality: Racial, Ethnic and Geographic Disparities in the United States (www.cdc.gov/cvh/maps/strokeatlas/). The Atlas provides an extensive series of national and state maps that show local disparities in stroke death rates for the five largest racial and ethnic groups in the United States (i.e., American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asians and Pacific Islanders, Black/African Americans, Hispanic/Latin Americans, and Whites). Interactive maps present heart disease and stroke mortality rates, county-by-county, for the state, racial/ethnic group, and gender of your choice (www.cdc.gov/cvh/maps/statemaps.htm).

Programs such as the Stroke and Heart Disease Prevention Initiative, which became effective January 1, 2004, in California, support and educate the public and encourage public health efforts to diminish the impact of these diseases in our state (http://www.dhs.cahwnet.gov/ps/cdic/cdcb/Chronic/CHDSP/).

The San Bernardino County Medical Society and its African American Health Initiative (AAHI) are involved in a study whose main objective is to address the problems of health disparity in our county. We are seeking to identify current healthcare resource availability and gaps in services and resources. After information is obtained, it will be available to the public for ease in accessing appropriate healthcare. We are seeking your cooperation and responses to a survey you will receive from the AAHI. This survey will be online at our website as well as provided with my April. We thank you in advance for your support.

As always, I appreciate your suggestions and input. Feel free to contact me at admin@sbcms.org.

Doctor Wilson's Recent Reading List
Ready for Anything - Productivity Principles for Work and Life, by David Allen.