Happy New Year

There is a lot of pressure around the end of one year and the beginning of the next to say something profound. I am going to resist that pressure.

I think it would be good to begin 2019 as we mean to go on: lean, focused and with the resolve to achieve personal and collective improvement as we face the changes and challenges ahead.

As of today, the M Health Fairview Joint Clinical Enterprise is in effect. Honestly, how many of us believed that this day would come? Now it is up to each one of us, every day, to renew our optimism and our commitment to our patients, our coworkers, this Medical School, this University and this new partnership. These are the things I am working on, and I hope you will join me:

• Focus on what is important: how we treat other people.
• Focus on the present: forget the differences of the past.
• Focus on improvement: it is the small, daily steps that lead to the bigger, more visible progress.
• Focus on being part of something larger than yourself: be it your practice, your office, your division, your department, your school, your university or your community.
• Focus on taking care of yourself: you are an important part of so many things and you are needed healthy and whole.

And always:

• Please let me know when you see room for improvement.
• Please ask for help if you need it.
• Please let us all know when you see things to celebrate.

Best wishes for a bright and invigorating New Year!