“You can find a way to do the right thing. Once you find it, you reengage with that passion that drove you into medicine in the first place.”


eral Session at the Fort Worth Conven- tion Center. (See “Are You Ready? Reg- ister Today for TexMed 2014,” page 55.) Visit www.texmed.org/texmed for more information.


Rebel without a pause After finishing his residency in internal medicine at Stanford University in 2002, Dr. Damania entered the field of medi- cine with energy and excitement. He expected to spend one-on-one time with patients and give them the best care possible. But 10 years into his career as a hospitalist, he says, the passion had drained from him.


In his presentation, Redefining the


Culture of Medicine, he’ll delve into the ethical challenges to delivering excellent care in a troubled health care system while proposing ways to revitalize it. Dr. Damania says he wants to create a new system that will allow doctors to retain their passion for patients, and he plans to share his mission with physicians at the Texas Medical Association’s annual conference next month. His keynote speech will examine the everyday strife physicians face in a highly regulated health care system while highlighting ways doctors can bring joy back into the practice of medicine. Dr. Damania is the founder of Turn- table Health, a Las Vegas-based practice that fosters a new type of primary care — one that focuses on prevention by offer- ing nutrition classes and group therapy along with regular patient visits. What sets Dr. Damania apart from past General Session speakers is his alter ego, “ZDoggMD,” a rapper well known in physician circles for his musical antics, dope beats, and fresh lyrics. ZDogg has attracted thousands of Internet viewers by transforming catchy songs by Miley Cyrus, Usher, Notorious B.I.G., and other popular artists into side-splitting music video parodies about infections, first aid, pharmaceuticals, and other health care


52 TEXAS MEDICINE April 2014


topics. View some of ZDogg’s videos at ZDoggMD.com or on YouTube at www .youtube.com/user/ZDoggMD. Dr. Damania says the bureaucracy in modern medicine makes TMA important because the organization helps doctors “push back.” TexMed attendees can ex- pect a few laughs from Dr. Damania’s speech, but he hopes his message will resonate on a more serious level. “You can find a way to do the right thing,” he says. “Once you find it, you reengage with that passion that drove you into medicine in the first place.” Dr. Damania says he’s excited to visit


Fort Worth and participate in his first TexMed conference. “And I’m really excited to talk to Texas


physicians,” he said. “I think Texas has incredible health care and incredible pro- viders, and I can’t wait to learn as much as I can while I’m there.” As for whether the audience can also expect a live ZDoggMD performance, Dr. Damania is keeping mum. “I’m a studio gangster,” he said. “If push comes to shove, I’ll throw some rhymes down.” You can hear Dr. Damania speak about the changing face of medicine and what physicians can do to improve the health care landscape Friday, May 2, at 3:30 pm during the TexMed 2014 Gen-


“Something in my personality had changed,” he said. Feeling overwhelmed by the “bureau- cracy of modern health care,” Dr. Dama- nia says he felt like a “cog in a giant ma- chine,” spending most of his days docu- menting with electronic health records (EHRs) and completing administrative tasks instead of caring for patients. “It had been death by 1,000 paper cuts over the course of 10 years,” he said. “There was no hope on the horizon. So much time was spent on nonmedical stuff.” Patient interaction consisted of rushed, impersonal visits.


“I knew that this was not who I was,” he said. Dr. Damania says his breaking point


occurred one day when, despite a full schedule and a packed waiting room, he spent an extra hour with a dying patient. Dr. Damania says he gave the patient one-on-one time and shared palliative care options. “The experience reminded me why we do this,” he said. Dr. Damania says he wondered why


he wasn’t providing this level of care all the time. In what he calls a “cry for help,” he created and released his first rap video. In 2010, he began writing and re- cording humorous rap parodies focused on medicine, including “Hard Doc’s Life,” a parody of “Hard Knock Life” by Jay-Z, and “What Does the Doc Say?” his take on “What Does the Fox Say?” by Ylvis. The videos have received thousands of views, and Dr. Damania has devel- oped a following among other young


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