CODE BLUE: The Other End of the Stethoscope Debra Blaine

Ordinary people's extraordinary stories & Everyday Conversations Regarding Mental Health

The Tim Heale Podcast S3 E152 Debra Blaine
Debra E. Blaine, MD is a retiring physician who recently became an author of medical and political thrillers (and is transitioning to science fiction). Her goal is to offer a gentler platform for people to safely examine why they hold the beliefs they do. From there, they can better decide if these beliefs actually serve them, and how they can reclaim their freedom of choice. She also writes about the effect of greed on what has become the "business" of healthcare instead of it being an essential human service.
She has so far released three books. "CODE BLUE: The Other End of the Stethoscope," "Undue Influences," and "Beyond the Pillars of Salt." All three have received awards of excellence, and all three are now self-published.
She is a life coach and a writing coach as well, and she also assists authors in learning to self-publish their books. A process she learned has much greater financial rewards and flexibility than having it done by a larger company.
I have practiced medicine for over thirty years and watched the changes that have turned patients into customers and medicine into an industry whose sole objective is profit. It inspired me to write my first book, "CODE BLUE: The Other End of the Stethoscope" because I wanted to share the challenges doctors face when trying to provide good, standard of care treatment to our patients. Our hands are tied at so many turns by insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, and the massive corporations that have swallowed up medical practices. To avoid liability, I wrote it as a fiction, and discovered that I love writing thrillers!
My second novel, "Undue Influences," was written in response to the wave of extremism that has fractured our communities, and in which so many have asserted their opinions simply by following their friends, their political party, and the barrage of fake news that abounds-- from both sides of the political aisle. When the most respected medias present their "news articles" written in the first person, we are hearing only opinion, disguised as fact. It is SO hard to get an honest picture of what is really going on in the world. It takes dedication and discipline, and above all, effort. Something the average American does not have the time nor the inclination to invest.
My third novel is a dystopian fiction and represents one possible outcome of our society's behavior; that is, if we continue to follow the natural progression of our current path. "Beyond the Pillars of Salt" is the sequel to "Undue Influences" and postulates that if humanity does not learn to become more decent human beings, both in our treatment of the planet and of each other, we will engineer our own extinction.
In my discussions, I encourage people to recognize where they are being deceived-- for good or for ill-- and some methods they can use to wade through the morass of information to the discovery of the truth. Then, and only then, can they form their own, considered opinion.
I believe that when we sincerely examine an issue, we can respect each other's different points of view. And then we can live in greater harmony. Remember when we could have a heated political debate with someone, disagree about EVERYTHING, and then say "whe

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