Pruitt vs.Gingrich

Like former history professor Newt Gingrich, I too am only an amateur on the subject of contemporary dental history. Also like Gingrich, I am nevertheless an active participant in health care IT adoption in dentistry and I too have a personal, very narrow opinion of how it should be shaped. The reason I am whipping the snot out of The Professor and his hangers-on is that we have different methods of wrasslin’ that begins with vastly different starting positions. In addition - and this is what makes the David-versus-Goliath match earthly entertaining - good sportsmanship became meaningless to me a few years ago. A small scrapper with no class can instantly go for the ankles, knees or better due to proximity to the ground.

Regardless of whether I draw any strangers into a fight, I think you will find something else entertaining from time to time if you hang around my neighborhood. Allow me to share with you events that influenced the history of dentistry that were too subtle to be recognized by reporters for the ADA News - much less written about. As an active participant in the ADA’s struggle with inevitable transparency, I have a marvelous viewpoint from which to describe what happens behind the scenes. I think it gives one a better sense of the forces that drive our professional organization and the future of dental care.

On October 18, two days before HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt was to address the ADA House of Delegates at the 2006 national convention in Las Vegas, I posted “Careful with that electronic health record, Mr. Leavitt” as a guest column on WTN.
http://wistechnology.com/articles/3407/
By the time Leavitt walked to the podium, my column came up as his first news hit when one googlesearched his name. It remained number one for several days following the convention. Perfect timing, don’t you think? Think he knows who I am and what neighborhood I’m from?

The WTN column is still the most popular piece I have ever posted. It was even translated into Chinese (somewhere on the Internet).

I like to think I am the reason that the Cabinet Secretary was especially pissed at the nation’s dentists when he let the secret out and threatened to sick his MBAs on us - which he has since then accomplished. (“Health standard setting: 'If the DDSs don’t do it, the MBAs will'” - ADA News, October 20, 2006)
http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/pubs/adanews/adanewsarticle.asp?a...

My pleasure. I was amazed at how easy it is to attract a gallery these days. At last, the future looks promising for parents of English majors who work at Radio Shack and still live at home. So move out, already.

I posted the final chapter of “Are you still asleep” this morning. I have a feeling that if I post nothing else before I leave to go camping on the bank of the Cibolo Creek next week, I will have done all it takes to change the ADA’s opinion of my huge, slow-moving competitor who can’t cover the tender spots quick enough. Gingrich is lost in a neighborhood he will never understand. I would love to discuss misconceptions about dentistry with Newt right here in front of everyone. Unlike Dr. Findley, I am not so sure that mine are the best way to handle threats from the Secretary of HHS. Maybe Newt can tell me in less than two words if I am mistaken about the complete absurdity of HIPAA in dentistry. If yes, I am mistaken, what a breakthrough in continuing education it would be if the former Speaker of the House of the United States could then swallow his pride, forgive me for resorting to cheap, but cute taunts and sell his plans for dental health care information technology to a few thousand practicing dentists instead of a hundred or so ambitious stakeholders in ADA Headquarters.

I get giggly when I think that a comment might appear in reply to this invitation by as early as say, Wednesday at noon my time. If not, I’ll simply take up the adventure again when I return on Sunday.

There are still other people on my list and I’ve got several good writing years left in me. Darrell K. Pruitt DDS