Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Why Haven't They Been Listening? An Interview with Zubin Damania, MD aka ZDoggMD
The ground is shifting under our feet as our society seems finally to be looking at the nature of human mortality and the way we care for each other…or don’t…as we complete our lives. Zubin Damania, MD aka ZDoggMD is now part of that conversation since the release of “Ain’t the Way to Die” his first not-so-funny medical parody music video focused on how we so many of us die in the hospital in a not-so-funny way. A hospitalist refugee from burn-out at a big academic center, ZDogg continually reinvents himself as an “off-white rap star” with a passion for saying what needs to be said with growing impact.
That doesn’t surprise any of us that have been practicing professionals in palliative care and hospice over the last 35 years. We have done our best to share our perspective and to inform our society. And our society has only just now seem to be paying attention. I sat down with ZDogg for an interview to address a question raised by Atul Gawande in an interview before his plenary at the AAHPM Assembly, “…why the hell aren’t people listening to you?”
Michael D. Fratkin, MD is a palliative care physician and founder of Resolution Care, a unique palliative care practice in Northern California. Resolution Care was featured on Pallimed in Dec 2014.
