On health IT and pop sensibility

Regarding "Dr. Martin conducts the geek chorus":

Thanks for the write-up. I hoped to make my mark as the "World's Pre-eminent Medical Informatimusicologist," but I guess I'll have to settle for being known as the "Weird Al Yankovic of Healthcare Geekdom." In all seriousness, there is a method to my madness—or a strategy to my strangeness perhaps.

Early in my career, as I dug deeper into the root causes of our healthcare system's failures, it became clear to me that we fundamentally lacked good information flow—"data liquidity" in the current parlance. That means information technology and health information exchange and standards for exchange, which is why I found myself working on data models and field lengths for messaging standards.

The music I create for health IT is just another extension of this work. People need information that penetrates because it is engaging. Plus, frankly, we're all a little burned out from these last several years of intense effort in health IT, brought to a frenzied pace through the HITECH Act. A little break from the grind every year or so with something funny or uplifting adds a bit of humanity to the long hours.

While, as the rap says, "this message is important, so I'm willing to play the fool," I'm definitely not looking to be thought a fool. So yes, I think this is important work and that it is my small contribution to the conversation and to the many folks toiling away at making this healthcare system work better for all of us.

Dr. Ross Martin

aka Dr. HITECH

Germantown, Md.