Eric Topol on Why Doctors Need to Organize

Eric Topol is an American cardiologist, scientist, and author. He is the founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, a professor of Molecular Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute, and a senior consultant at the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California. He is editor-in-chief of Medscape and theheart.org. He has published three bestseller books on the future of medicine. The Creative Destruction of Medicine (2010), The Patient Will See You Now (2015), and Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again (2019). He was also commissioned by the UK 2018–2019 to lead planning for the National Health Service's future workforce, integrating genomics, digital medicine, and artificial intelligence. In 2016, Topol was awarded a US$207 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to lead a significant part of the Precision Medicine Initiative (All of Us Research Program), a one million American prospective research program. This is in addition to his role as principal investigator for a US$35 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to promote innovation in medicine and the education and career training of future medical researchers. 

Lyrics to the song that was inspired by the interview: 

DOCTORS UNITE 

We need the doctors to lead the fight 
We need the doctors to combine their might 
We need the doctors to lead every campaign 

We need the doctors to take this on 
We need the doctors to be strong 
We need the doctors to stand up in our name 

Obesity is killing people 
It's an epidemic 
Heart disease is deadly 
And it's become endemic 

Who can end the nightmare 
What can stop the pain? 
Dieticians? Or marketing campaigns? 
No, the remedy is Universal 
Doctors unite 

Doctors are stressed to breaking 
By unnecessary work 
Tied down to their keyboards 
They are data entry clerks 

Who can end the nightmare? 
What can stop the pain? 
Medical Administrators, this is their terrain 
No, the remedy is Universal 
Doctors unite 

We need the doctors to lead the fight 
We need the doctors to combine their might 
We need the doctors to lead every campaign 

We need the doctors to take this on 
We need the doctors to be strong 
We need the doctors to stand up in our name 

There are so many issues 
So many fights 
From inequality to poverty 
Don't mention gun rights 

But if one million doctors 
Were together in one lane 
Imagine their power 
How much they could change 

Opioids are overused 
A crisis now exists 
Doctors serve  as drug dispensers 
For big pharma lobbyists 

Who can end the nightmare? 
What can stop the pain? 
Possibly new legislation? Or something in that vein? 
No, the remedy is Universal 
Doctors unite 

We need the doctors to lead the fight 
We need the doctors to combine their might 
We need the doctors to lead every campaign 

We need the doctors to take this on 
We need the doctors to be strong 
We need the doctors to stand up in our name 

We need the doctors to unite 
We need the doctors to aim a strike 
We need the doctors to get us out of this 

The remedy is Universal 
Doctors unite