Recently, NPR told the story of a Texas hospital that is trying to use the "speed dating" concept to win new patients and bolster physician loyalty as well. Selected doctors and prospective patients pair off and chat for five minutes, then rotate into the next conversation. Check out the hospital's promotional video:

Clever idea. Attention-getting tactic. Yet there are numerous questions to consider... Will most physicians participate? Will referrals to the hospital increase? How scalable is it?  

And the bottom line question is: Can a good physician-patient match be made through a brief, patient-driven conversation? A Medscape poll shows that only 21% of physicians feel "speed dating" would be effective for their practice.

The key is asking the right questions, that is, questions that are predictive of a good doctor-patient match. And that is a work in progress.

Obama just nominated Regina Benjamin, MD to be our new Surgeon General. She's a family doctor in the shrimping village of Bayou La Batre, Alabama, winner of the MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" and on board of trustees of the American Medical Association.

One article credited her going back as a physician for an MBA degree as evidence that she's politically savvy, presuming that people with political ambitions get MBAs. I'm thinking of my many MBA students who for some reason chose corporate paths. Hmmm.

To me, the fact that Dr. Benjamin spent much of her career dealing hands-on with poor folks in need of care bodes well for healthcare reform. And that's how Obama introduced her, someone "who understands the urgency of meeting this challenge in a personal and powerful way..."

Onward, healthcare reform!