The Elephant in the Boa Constrictor

Richard Reece M.D. who writes Medinnovation Blog aptly analogized HIT  and the Government. 

The Elephant in the Room

Before resigning in frustration as the first “HIT Czar,” David Brailer observed in a 2005 in a New Times Times interview , “The elephant in the living room is what we’re trying to do is the small physician practice. That’s the hardest part, and it will bring this effort to its knees if we fail.”

The Blind Men and The Elephant

The second metaphor is the Blind Men and the Elephant. Our health care system is an elephant. Everyone feels the elephant’s parts differently. Doctors hanging on to the tail feel the system is an encircling rope, purchasers touching the leg feel it is an immovable tree, plans holding the trunk feel it is a squirming snake, and government officials riding on the head feel it as a global positioning satellite devices, capable of controlling the direction of the elephant.

 

As Dr Reece so eloquently espouses:

“What concerns me is what will come out the distal end of the boa constrictor once the digestive process ends.”