Here To Be Meaningfully Helpful
Dr. Greg Plotnikoff
Photo Credit: Minnesota Personalized Medicine
Dr. Greg Plotnikoff is very clear. He is not here to help his patients. He is here to be meaningfully helpful on their journey to healing. In fact, that is what he says to each new patient at their first appointment. There is a nuanced and profound difference between the two approaches with the latter recognizing that no matter how significant a patient’s health challenges are, there is hope as long as the patient and doctor co-create an action plan toward the shared goal of healing. Practicing this type of medicine recognizes the patient’s valuable knowledge and experience, and the active role they have to play in their healing. It was his desire to be meaningfully helpful that motivated Greg to leave a big health care system and establish Minnesota Personalized Medicine where they treat people, not diseases.
“Why Does This Happen Only at the End of Life?”
Greg knew he wanted to become a doctor back in grade school. His neighbor, Mrs. Haney, had cancer, which they couldn’t find the source of, and they couldn’t control her bleeding, so ambulances made frequent visits to her house. Seeing all of this made him think,”I want to be helpful.”
When he was a sophomore at Carleton College, Greg won an essay contest organized by the Abbott Northwestern Hospice. His prize was to attend the first International Conference on Human Values in London. There he got to meet Dame Cicely Saunders and other leaders in the hospice movement, which was still quite new in the U.S. in the early 80s. He was moved to learn more about the compassionate response to and care for humans nearing the end of their lives. It made him wonder, “Why does this happen only at the end of life?”
Greg volunteered at the Abbott Northwestern Hospice where he worked with great nurses and chaplains. He knew he was headed to medical school, but his hospice volunteering made him realize there was an important dimension to medicine that would not be covered in medical school, so he decided to attend Divinity School first. His family didn’t understand his choice thinking it would be better to get something useful like a master’s degree in biochemistry or immunology, but Greg was determined, so he headed off to Harvard Divinity School. There he studied world cultures and religion, medical ethics, pastoral care and trained as a hospital chaplain. Once he finished, he was ready for Medical School at the University of Minnesota.
Missing Curriculum
As a medical student, Greg gained a reputation for asking different and thoughtful questions. It became clear to him there were important topics that needed to be raised, honored, acknowledged and debated as part of the medical school experience, so he often stepped up to organize forums where that could happen. One particularly memorable forum on Healthcare Ethics and Economics that included speakers Dr. David Hilfiker and Senator David Durenburger, generated the threat of a large protest by people opposed to Senator Durenburger’s participation.
Greg joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota Medical School after completing his residency. It was a time when there was more discussion about spirituality and medicine, so he sought out the chaplains, and they teamed up to address the gaps they saw in the medical school curriculum and experience. He knew from his own experience that there was an overt curriculum, which many believed contained all the knowledge a doctor needed. But there was also a hidden curriculum, which contained topics that many saw as having no value. But Greg thought they were very important and considered the missing curriculum, so he collaborated with others to integrate them into the overt curriculum. This led to him co-chairing a task force on integrative medicine, which resulted in the creation of the Center for Spirituality and Healing where he served as its first medical director.
Time To Stretch
One of the best experiences Greg had as a physician was working at the Community-University Health Care Center. He describes it as the most dysfunctional clinic in the best way possible. His patients were mostly immigrants and refugees who considered western medicine to be an alternative medicine. He learned to listen for meaning, beliefs and the metaphors his patients used. He worked hard to learn new words or phrases of the languages they spoke. He also got to know the interpreters to understand the challenges they faced and nuances of the language. One patient, a mother of three, challenged him when he gave her a prescription that would cost her $40/month. She turned to him and said, “Dr. Plotnikoff, prove to me that I need this prescription.” He said he would look into it, which he did, and it turned out there were five good alternatives, two of which were free. He was happy to give her a better option and help her have more money to spend on her kids. To this day, he is amazed by what his patients at the clinic taught him.
On September 11, 2001, Greg was in Kiev, Ukraine, to attend an international conference on medicinal mushrooms, which he learned about from a cancer patient who was using them. He had gone early to do some sight seeing and was horrified when he saw the devastation in New York. The conference, which was led by a physician from Japan, where medicinal mushrooms are more common, started the next day. It wasn’t a large conference, so participants got to know one another. Greg learned not only about medicinal mushrooms but gained insight into how medicine was practiced in the countries other participants were from, including Japan. The events of 9/11 changed the world, and he realized it was time to stretch. He was going to Japan to learn more about how they practiced medicine.
Neither Common Nor Sensical
The two years Greg intended to stay in Japan stretched into six. He went knowing only sushi, Konnichiwa and Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto. He left having created and taught classes in Japanese, including traditional herbal medicine, bioethics, which he co-taught with a prominent Buddist priest, and medical professionalism. And every day he discovered that something he thought was common sense as a western-trained physician was neither common nor sensical to Japanese doctors.
He recalled attending hospital rounds and a patient with a high fever was discussed. Greg recommended giving Acetaminophen to suppress the fever, which is common practice in U.S. hospitals. He could tell from his colleagues' body language that they were alarmed by what he suggested. Finally, after a few awkward moments, one of them asked him, “Why would you suppress the body's natural healing response?” Greg learned they would wrap the patient's body and place a cool cloth on the forehead to manage the fever. He left Japan with a wealth of knowledge and experience, and the gift of a much broader perspective.
Doing Things Differently and Getting Better Results
Upon his return, Greg was unwilling to simply be a provider delivering health care to his patients. He knew and believed deeply that an important part of his job as a physician was to help his patients understand that they have an active role to play in their healing and that it doesn’t just come from a pill.
At MPM they treat patients who have complex illnesses, many of whom have been told that it is all in their head leaving them with no hope for ending their suffering. The MPM team treats a patient’s body, mind and spirit. They understand deeply that healing comes from more than just a prescription. They also are part of a growing community of health practitioners who opted out of our current healthcare system to practice medicine that is deeply personal, gives patients hope and empowers their healing. They are doing things differently and getting better results.
MPM is a “private, independent, micro-medical practice” that doesn’t participate in insurance programs. They work to provide exceptional care while being transparent about the cost of it. They do what they can to mitigate the cost of care to their patients including partnering with a service to make it easy to submit bills for out-of-network health insurance reimbursement at no cost.
Greg says he feels like he’s been in medical school for almost 40 years. His patients have taught him a lot. They are challenging him to be a better physician while reclaiming their courage and hope to face another day. They’re also discovering their own capacities to heal. By being meaningfully helpful and treating the person and not just the disease, hope happens every day at MPM.
Learn More
Good health isn’t something we have to chase as though it were a fugitive on the loose. Greg recommends focusing on the five fundamentals: breathing, eating, sleeping, moving/exercising and loving (living a life of connections, meaning and purpose.) He emphasizes “The Five Fundamentals first, then pharmaceuticals.”
Please visit Minnesota Personalized Medicine to learn more about their services, physicians, staff and partners and read and watch testimonials from patients about healing and hope. Also, there are resources and programming on the five fundamentals to help you improve your health.
