Phil:  Physicians have become the #1 group of people who commit suicide in the United States. Up to 60%, and some studies showing up to 69%, of physicians are depressed. We had people tell us more than once that they’d attempted suicide. So we decided then that there were things we needed to do as an organization to change it. But what we did—I didn't think was sufficient. So at the end of my time there, with the help and support of the boards, we founded a mindfulness-based physician leadership program. Today I'm the co-director of that. We’re at our fifth year, our fifth cohort.  When this group graduates at the end of the ten-month program we will have 80 meditating physicians in Columbus.

Richard:  As I'm listening to you, I'm feeling some real hope. I’m not a student of healthcare in the U.S. but I think it’s just in a terrible shape. Would you care to reflect about the general state of our health care in the US?

Phil:  Well, there's a big project, Richard, that we've left out—one that reflects on that. We got invested in the issue of health care for the uninsured and created a literal, and virtual, free clinic for people in town. We have over 5,000 Physicians who volunteer in it.

Richard:  Five thousand? Oh my goodness. And that reflects some of the deep reasons why people become doctors.

Phil:  It does. And that's part of the reason we did it. It was for people who are uninsured, but it was also for physicians. We also launched a community initiative to try to understand what the community wanted from healthcare. Nobody had asked the community. The healthcare system has grown up topsy-turvy.

So we again went out and conducted interviews with business CEOs, with insurance companies, with citizens and tried to ascertain whether this community was ready to do something. We came back saying we think so.

So then we sponsored 10 community assemblies using a lot of this art of hosting methodology that I just spoke of, to engage over thousand citizens in what the purpose of healthcare is in our community. It was from those 10 assemblies that we learned that the citizens did not want just a “sick-care” system. They wanted a health-care system. So one of the outcomes of that work was that a good friend of mine (who also is an art of hosting practitioner and was the CEO of a not-for-profit organization) took it on to see if they could shift how health care was being delivered in Columbus. So with no authority—this is not a government entity; they are a not-for-profit—using the hosting methodologies, they brought together insurers, providers, hospitals and what have you. Today, there are over half a million people in Columbus, Ohio (population 1.1 million) who are getting their primary care in something called patient-centered medical homes.

To read more of Amit Dungarani and Richard Whittaker's article, please click here.