Correspondence

Meeting Mania

N Engl J Med 1994; 331:1026October 13, 1994

Article

To the Editor:

Bergman's proposal (June 2 issue)1 that institutions declare an all-out war on meetings, task forces, and retreats has made a real stir at my university. A committee has been formed to study the problem. Alas, its first meeting is next week.

Robert M. Wachter, M.D.
University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143-0862

1 References

1
Bergman AB. Meeting mania. N Engl J Med 1994;330:1622-1623
Full Text | Web of Science | Medline

To the Editor:

I would like to amplify Dr. Bergman's insightful comments on “Meeting Mania.” The term “pacesetter physicians” has been applied to the emerging leadership in our new world of medical practice, which is increasingly dominated by managed-care administrators and insurance companies.1 I believe many of these physician leaders have shifted their interests from clinical medicine after hearing the siren call to become physician-administrators and political leaders.

The intoxicating hubris that characterizes dinner meetings, retreats, and committees can foster a sense of leadership and power. I have observed that some of these pacesetter physicians develop a new personal agenda. They spend less time with patients and more time devoted to administrative duties and management activity. They have often lost the perspective of the soldiers in the trenches and seem to have done so happily. They become imbued with a new team spirit, and meetings and committees bring out a vitality they formerly felt helping sick patients. Personally, at the dinner meetings I feel none of the tension and responsibility that I feel in the emergency room or intensive care unit. As a patient, whom would you want to see -- a physician thinking about leadership and meetings, or one who spends professional time away from patients reading current medical journals?

Harvey J. Blumenthal, M.D.
Saint Francis Hospital, Tulsa, OK 74136

1 References