From the
PRESIDENT
Robert A. Zaring, MD, MMM
GLMS President | [email protected]
IMPOSSIBLE is a Fallacy
I
have always found optical illusions fasci-
nating. The following is a link to several
different kinds if you are interested: www.
michaelbach.de/ot/. This link has a variety of
optical illusions, but does not have amongst
its examples one of the more common ones
known as “The Old Woman Young Lady.” This
illusion is a simple black and white picture that
looks like an old woman to some and a young
lady to others. The interesting thing about the
illusion is that once you perceive it one way,
it is difficult to see it the other way without
someone’s aid. I think this is often how we face
challenges and obstacles. Our perception guides
our opinion of an issue and how we go about
confronting it. This was never more clear to
me than when I was in Washington, D.C. for
the American Medical Association’s National
Advocacy Conference and heard a lecture by
Mick Ebeling.
Mick Ebeling is an executive producer in
Los Angles who used his technologic insight to
develop and become the CEO of Not Impossible
Labs. His company has won numerous awards
including the Muhammed Ali Center Human-
itarian of the Year Award and two consecutive
SXSW Innovation Awards. He bases his com-
pany around a few credos, none bigger than
“Help one, help many.”
He believes you find one person with a
problem and fix that and, like a ripple, many
will be aided. His company has created unique
technologies that have been miracles to many.
Two of his amazing creations are the Eyewriter
and Project Daniel. The Eyewriter was his first
creation and the start of his company. He had
attended a fundraiser for artist Tony Quan.
Tony was a famous Los Angles graffiti artist
and activist who developed ALS and had not
drawn for almost seven years when Mr. Ebel-
ing met him. He could only move his eyes, but
thanks to Mr. Ebeling, that was enough. After
the fundraiser, Mr. Ebeling and his colleagues
worked to develop the Eyewriter. The Eyewriter
analyzes Tony Quan’s eye movements and lets
him draw and produce art again. Mr. Quan’s
joy at being able to draw again encouraged Mr.
Ebeling to continue his work, and that led him
to Project Daniel.
Mr. Ebeling met a young Sudanese boy
named Daniel on a trip to Africa. The boy was
missing both his arms from a bombing that
had occurred in his village. Mr. Ebeling noticed
that Daniel’s story was not uncommon. He was
determined to create a system that would allow
Daniel and others to get prosthetic limbs even
though resources were limited. Through much
trial and tribulation, his team used 3D printing
to create a prosthetic arm for Daniel and taught
others how to use the technology themselves to
generate their own prosthetics. Both scenari-
os were called impossible jobs - before they
weren’t. When asked how Mick and his team can
produce such miracles he says it is because they
believe, “Impossible is a fallacy.” Where others
could only perceive the impossible, Mick says
he knows there is a solution because everything
we see was impossible at one time and then it
wasn’t.
The fact that his denial of the concept of
impossibility allowed him to make such won-
ders got me thinking of how much our early
perceptions shape our actions and feelings. I
thought back to a poem I once read called the
Lost Generation by Jonathan Reed. www.you-
tube.com/watch?v=dIEDuRcchjI.
The interesting thing about the poem is that
it is a palindrome. When read as normal it is
cynical and pessimistic, but read in the reverse
it is hopeful and optimistic. Depending on how
you approached the poem and perceived its
structure, you would end up depressed or en-
couraged. I feel this is comparable to what we as
health care providers and physicians of GLMS
are facing. We face significant change within
health care and our own organization. As an
organization, we have moved from the Old
Medical School Building to the Fleur-De-Lis,
we have had an Ignite team evaluate the Foun-
dation and make recommendations changing its
focus, our employed members are growing, and
our members are faced with a slew of changes
due to our first year of MACRA and changes
with the Affordable Care Act.
How we perceive these times and changes will
say a lot about how we respond and what our
successes or failures will be. If we are to start
with the right perception then we need multiple
eyes to view the puzzles we face. Just like the
illusion of “The Old Woman Young Lady,” we
need to be vigilant to see both images, but we
need more than a few viewers so a possibility
is not missed. I will be calling on you through
the next couple of weeks to join the many com-
mittee’s GLMS offers. It is only with everyone’s
input that we can achieve the answers we all
desire. Some issues and challenges that we face
have the aura of impossibility, but if we keep the
words of Aldous Huxley in mind, “There are
things known and there are things unknown,
and in between are the doors of perception.”
Then, we too may prove that the concept of
impossibility is a fallacy.
If you are interested in learning more
about the Eyewriter, please follow this link
to a TED Talk by Mr. Ebeling: www.ted.com/
talks/mick_ebeling_the_invention_that_un-
locked_a_locked_in_ar tist.
Dr. Zaring is an anatomic and clinical pathologist
with Louisville Pathology Associates and practices
at Jewish Hospital.
JULY 2017
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