I retired from seeing patients in 2018, after 50 years working as a practitioner, writer, speaker, and consultant in family medicine and hospice. With the goal of sharing what I’ve learned during my long, challenging career, I continue to plant seeds of ideas as widely as I can. I write a blog about a broad range of healthcare topics, as well as articles for the medical and the lay press.
I speak, teach and consult at every opportunity. My most recent book, Digital Healing: People, Information and Healthcare, published by Taylor & Francis in 2018, is the product of a career-long interest in electronic technology. The work explores the universe of information and communication in ways that--rather than erecting barriers between patients and providers--enhance connection among all participants in the healthcare endeavor, thereby improving outcomes and satisfaction and reducing cost. Ultimately, my book is about healing.
Check out what I have to say. I invite you to comment on, ask about, and discuss anything that strikes you. You can reach me here. Spread these ideas far and wide. That’s why I do this.
Marc’s trip to Kenya this winter had a huge impact on him. “Mzee,” the piece published in this issue of Chicago Life, touches on one bit of it. The copy went to press before Marc had back surgery, yet another procedure made possible by his status as a privileged American. He is still recovering but expects one day before too long to do the equivalent of the hike down to the Ewaso Ng'iro River and back. He just doesn’t know where yet.
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Marc’s trip to Kenya this winter had a huge impact on him. “Mzee,” the piece published in this issue of Chicago Life, touches on one bit of it. The copy went to press before Marc had back surgery, yet another procedure made possible by his status as a privileged American. He is still recovering but expects one day before too long to do the equivalent of the hike down to the Ewaso Ng'iro River and back. He just doesn’t know where yet.
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American healthcare is at a critical juncture. Both providers and patients are increasingly frustrated by degradation of the human relationships that lie at the core of medical practice. Author Marc Ringel takes a broad view of how and why healthcare and technology have come to their current predicament, and analyzes how to organize the work of healthcare in ways that use machines to do what they do best, thereby freeing humans to do what we do best.
At last a comprehensive, easy-to-read book that explains telemedicine in understandable terms for the practitioners and consumers whose lives will be transformed by the convergence of computers and telecommunications in healthcare. If you need to understand telemedicine but get lost in the technical jargon of existing references, this is the resource for you. Beginning with a practical and future-oriented definition of telemedicine, the authors include dozens of leading-edge examples of telemedicine in practice to illustrate the diversity of this technology. Biographical sketches of telemedicine’s pioneers are also presented to demonstrate the vitality and vision of health professionals who are leading the revolution.
American healthcare is at a critical juncture. Providers and patients are increasingly frustrated by degradation of the human relationships that lie at the core of medical practice. This book takes a broad view of how and why healthcare and technology have come to their current predicament, and analyzes how to organize the work of healthcare in ways that use machines to do what they do best, thereby freeing humans to do what we do best.
Visit Blog"The key to success of any chronic disease/care coordination telehealth program is a close relationship between the people with the disease and the ones monitoring their illness from afar." Page 135
-Marc Ringel
"One shouldn’t automatically discount information available on the internet and social media just because it was put out there by laypeople and might never have been seen, let alone blessed by healthcare professionals."
Page 201
-Marc Ringel
"...clinicians, patients and the institutions meant to serve all of us have to figure out how to swing the pendulum back [from data collecting] in the direction of real human interaction."
Page 66
-Marc Ringel
Marc Ringel, MD, was born and raised in Chicago, attended college in New Orleans and Madrid, did his medical training in Chicago, and then became a rural family physician, starting with the National Health Service Corps in Yuma, Colorado, population 2000. For nine years he served on the faculty of North Colorado Family Medicine Family Practice Residency Training Program (NCFM) in Greeley. There he developed alternative training programs at Sunrise Community Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center, and a rural training track in Wray, Colorado.
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