Every now and again you get lucky and you get reminded why you do what you do.

Last Thursday I got to attend the opening gala for the International Brain Mapping and Interoperative Surgical Planning Society’s 2009 World Congress.  There I saw the presentation of their Beacon Award for those who have shown courage in their efforts to raise awareness of neurological disorders on behalf of patients and families.  One of this year’s recipients, Colin Rich, spoke to the group – and totally blew us away.

In 2002 he did what he had done for more than 20 years.  He cinched up his boots, strapped on his helmet, grabbed his weapon and headed into harm’s way in Afghanistan, where he was wounded – not for the first time, but this time it changed his life.  The head trauma that he received eventually took his sight, and as the world closed in on him, he also discovered he now had a form of epilepsy.

You would expect his acceptance to be a thank you to those that have advanced the science and practice of neurology, and to remind us that there is more work to be done. 

And he did – but not directly.

Instead he chose to remind us that this award doesn’t belong to him or to others like him, that it must be shared with those that are too often forgotten in the process.  In his case, it was his wife Nancy.  The one who helped him through his struggle to regain much of what he had lost, the one who never gave up even when he wanted to, and the one who gave him the reason to have the courage to push beyond the limits his injury had imposed. 

It shouldn’t have surprised us that a guy who spent his life serving others, would remind us that the award is not about him, but those that surround him. 

It shouldn’t surprise us, but it does because it’s so unfortunately true – we forget those that stand behind the wheelchair, across the gurney, who sit in waiting room, or in that uncomfortable extra chair in the corner of the exam room, are part of the patient experience.  They may not feel the pain, but the share it, and the best examples of emerging systems account for them.

So bringing it back to the purpose of this blog; remember what Colin Rich tells us – there is more to the patient experience than the individual.  We need to remember that as we develop the next generation of communication tools and experiences.