In the world of medicine a physician is either academic or private.  In academics you are clinical or bench.  In gastroenterology you are lumen or liver.

In medicine we love our silos.  For many of us, they’re all we know.  We see discreet, defined paths in our areas of interest.  It’s rare that we see a physician step out of the traditional paradigm.

These professional views are passed from one generation to the next.  We put our trainees into the same silos where we encourage them to spend their best years working to look like the guy before them.  I know this because I spent the better part of my early career trying desperately to peek over the edge.

When I tell my peers about my preoccupation with technology and medicine’s shifting landscape, I can see the wheels begin to turn as they try to picture a silo.

But the image never quite materializes.  We smile, nod and move along our separate ways.