Centering the Power of Our Networks With Our Hearts

Julie M. Linton, MD, FAAP

Executive Committee, AAP Council on Community Pediatrics 

Co-Chair, AAP Immigrant Health Special Interest Group

A Culture of Health Leader (1)

This is my first solo blog. Typical of most of my social media interactions, I confess I have not been an early adopter. I didn’t join Facebook until 2010. I joined Twitter in 2014 — but didn’t really use it until 2016 and am still getting the hang of it. I still don’t really understand LinkedIn.

And yet, I am curious, willing to explore, and at times even hungry to understand why certain ideas that seem unjust or unfounded are often perpetuated through the power of networks. Where I struggle is the balance between the breadth of connections via these often artificial networks and the depth of genuine human connection.

When I see patients (in my case, when I see children), I often have only a short time to understand the essence what is ailing them. That understanding is based on an instinct for human connection.  To do so, physicians have a responsibility to establish an environment of cultural safety, embody cultural humility, and embrace shared humanity.

In medicine, the network for care must not only include the child but the family. Taking that to a broader level, it includes the community. And when I consider the impact of policy on the children I see - the risk of family separation due to threatened deportation, educational inequity based on race or zip code  -  I recognize that clinical care falls within an even broader network. And that is where my daily human connections intersect with the power to combat inequity with networks.

Pediatricians inherently see advocacy as fundamental to our field. This concept is increasingly recognized across the field of medicine (see the recent Blog by Dr. Esther Choo, https://opmed.doximity.com/dr-esther-choo-discusses-why-advocacy-is-medicine-too-cdce79f784f1). We can take this even further, towards a world where most physicians are part of authentic partnerships between sectors that may not lie within traditional views of health, such as education, business, and law. And again, that is where the power of the network has its appeal.

One approach to communication, called the Heart, Head & Hand framework by Thaler Pekar (http://pndblog.typepad.com/pndblog/2010/09/heart-head-hand.html) prioritizes the critical role of appealing to the heart with stories, the head with data, and the hand with a call to action. And this, I believe, is the essence of my role as a physician, a social scientist, and an advocate.

I am still not sure what this intersection will look like. But as a pediatrician to the core, I am committed to explore respect for intimate human connection with recognition of the power of the network.

1. Culture of Health Leaders is a national leadership program supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to support leaders—from all sectors that have an influence on people’s health—to create collaborative solutions that address health inequities and move their communities and organizations toward a Culture of Health.