HJBR Jul/Aug 2019

dialogue 18 JUL / AUG 2019 I  Healthcare Journal of baton rouge   do. We’re much more likely to get buy in froma patient if they know that there’s a problem. If we just tell someone to do this, there’s an attitude of complacency that goes away whenwe can show them that there’s a real problem. Suddenly, the attitude changes to, “What can I do?”We think this is very important. Editor I n Louisiana, it’s exciting to be the leader in such an important specialty. What does it mean to be the leader in medical devices, procedures, and getting better outcomes? Walker  I think it means a lot of things. First, it’s a privilege to help work to develop new improved therapies and new diagnostic modalities. It’s really a privilege and it’s a lot of fun, but it’s also a responsibility because wemust try to impart some wisdom to other young doctors who are going to expand the field into the ensuing decades, so we’ve taken that very seriously. We’ve tried to serve as mentors to those coming up in the field, and we’ve tried to create forums such as NCVH where information can be shared and people can improve what they do. Editor  How do you measure quality and success? Walker There are a lot of ways to do that. For me, it’s one patient at a time, and seeing someone whose limb I’ve saved or someone who has come to me in cardiogenic shock. I once was able to dance with a lady when she turned 100, and that same lady had presented tome with no blood pressure and car- diopulmonary resus- citation going on 20 years prior. Twenty years later I got to dance with her on her 100th birthday. That’s what I mean by one patient at a time, or one family at a time. Some- times I findmyself not treating one person, but a whole family. Sometimes it’s just that one person, but they affect that whole family, just as I mentioned earlier that my father so affected me. I cannot imagine how things would have been had I not had my father those 26 years that I did have him. I think that would have been such a loss. Finally, we follow obvious standard figures, and the most important of those are pub- lished mortality and morbidity stats, those in particular published by impartial groups likeMedicare. There we have shown that we have dramatically lowered both mortality and amputation rates. All of those things matter to us, but really I think it ultimately gets down to one on one with patients. That is clearly the way that we measure quality and success. Editor  What is some advice you can give to young physicians? Walker  I know there are many physicians who experience physician burnout, but that’s never happened to me. I tell every young physician that they’re in the great- est vocation on earth and that they must never quit learning. Take pleasure in help- ing your patients, enjoy your successes with them, and learn fromyour failures. But right now, we’ve never had a time in the history of medicine where we’ve been able to enact the kind of change that we can enact now. That’s “ I tell every young physician that they’re in the greatest vocation on earth and that they must never quit learning. Take pleasure in helping your patients, enjoy your successes with them, and learn from your failures.” “For me, it’s one patient at a time and seeing someone whose limb I’ve saved.”