Who Am I and What Is This?
The origin story of Healthcare Explained
Hi, I'm Flora. I have always been curious about the world, especially why and how things work. I went to MIT and became a mechanical engineer because of it. I have also always been interested in healthcare - but no way was I going to become a doctor when that was what my Chinese immigrant parents wanted! I was adamant about choosing my own path, and besides, I didn't want to be in school that long. Years later, I find myself glad I did not choose the medical path, because I learned that doctors know shockingly little about why and how disease works, let alone how health insurance works or how they even get paid. It's not their fault - they are a product of the system they were trained and expected to operate in. Even as I worked as a full-time engineer, I never lost sight of the healthcare questions I wanted answered.
A couple years ago, I decided to pursue my healthcare passion full time. I quit my engineering job to get a master's degree in healthcare management, with a focus on digital transformation in healthcare. Since theoretical learning drives me crazy, I also worked as a medical scribe to a primary care physician for 10 months, and then as a front desk receptionist for another family medicine practice for 6 months. In that time, through almost 10,000 patient interactions, I learned firsthand how a primary care clinic operates: what patients come in for, who everybody is and what their functions are, why providers do the things they do, and most importantly, where workflow pain points are and what an improved solution might look like.
Now, I have a lot of healthcare knowledge that I think everybody should know, because you deserve to know how your healthcare system works in order to take ownership of your own care. No one will advocate for you better than you can, so instead of assuming that your healthcare team will take care of things for you, here is the knowledge you need to navigate the system for yourself, as you are unfortunately expected to do. This is healthcare, explained.
I'm going to start off with a few articles answering basic questions that I have not been able to easily find anywhere else. But after that, I am going to be counting on you, the readers, to ask questions to guide what I write about next. If at any point you're reading, or the next time you're interfacing with the healthcare system and you find yourself wondering WHY, please ask me!
