I love to see doctors and health professionals come out in social spaces and blogs and maker spaces to think, write and make. When you talk to them, they have a spark. They’re doing the job they’ve always done. It’s just that the power of connection and creation compounds what they do IRL. You can see it when you talk to them.

For many, the ability to make and create offers the opportunity to find and connect and relate with others in the same situation. There’s a difference between our job and our work. For the first 15 years of my career I was doing my job while looking for work. I didn’t have the tools and permission to think even a little differently.

The ability to make something and put it out into the world fills an unmet professional need. Writing, making and collaborating in new spaces offers a new sense of purpose for many. And I see it in colleagues courageous enough to think and act even a little differently.

Health care needs to find more people with the spark. Or create them.