"Involve yourself, ask questions. All of us are in healthcare ourselves, through our family, through our friends, through our pocketbooks. Asking why things happen and understanding how decisions are made and who makes them and how is so critical; ultimately bringing change is about influencing those decisions.  Even volunteering at local hospitals and clinics and watching patient flow and information flow can be incredibly eye-opening. One thing I have repeatedly been exposed to is the tension between standardized care and personal care.

The other thing is to read (or listen or whatever)! When I was first exposed to Don Berwick’s 'triple aim' in health care, I realized not just how many different ways in which clever minds and technologies could be deployed to make things “better” but also how difficult it truly was to change anything in a deeply conservative (necessarily so) in the 'health industrial' complex with so many stakeholders."