In the movie "The Number 23", the main character played by Jim Carrey is obsessed with the idea that all incidents and events are directly connected to the number 23, some permutation of the number 23, or a number related to the number 23.
I'm not obsessed, nor do I have OCD in any way, but much of my life is neatly organized into groups of 5.
Why 5?
I find that 5 is the maximum number of tasks I can do simultaneously without losing track of the details. Here's my framework for my career and personal life
Career
1. BIDMC - As CIO of BIDMC, I have 5 direct reports
a. Clinical Systems
b. Financial Systems
c. Infrastructure
d. Knowledge Services (includes medical library and all online
e. Media Services
2. Harvard Medical School - As CIO of HMS, I have 5 direct reports
a. Administrative IT
b. Educational IT
c. Informatics
d. Infrastructure
e. Research IT
3. Standards- Chair of HITSP and Vice-chair of the HIT Standards Committee (Although the work we're doing includes 5 Tiger Teams,that was not a conscious choice on my part!)
4. Healthcare Information Exchange - Chair of NEHEN and CEO of MA-Share (MA-Share and NEHEN merger will be finalized in June) which supports 5 different use cases for data sharing.
5. Advisory Councils - I have 5 advisory positions
a. Food and Drug Administration Subcommittee on IT
b. Social Security Administration Future Technology Advisory Panel
c. Anvita Health Board of Directors
d. Epocrates IT Advisory Council
e. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation National Advisory Committee for Project HealthDesign
Personal Life
1. Family - (wife, daughter, mother, father and me)
2. Home and Garden (my Thursday blog will describe my 5 small gardens)
3. Japanese Flutes (I have 5 instruments)
4. Outdoors - (Hiking, Kayaking, Climbing, Running, and Biking)
5. Writing (blogs, IT journals, academic publications, popular press, lectures)
Each night before bed, I review my 5 career organizations and my 5 direct reports in each of my jobs to ensure I've resolved all the issues of each day. By always balancing five tasks, five people, and five projects in every area, I maximize my breadth without sacrificing the depth of my attention span.
There's no need to worry about my sanity, the number 5 is just a convenient mnemonic and not a pre-requisite for getting through the day. And now it's time to prepare for my 5 meetings tomorrow...
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As president of the Mayo Clinic Platform, I lead a portfolio of new digital platform businesses focused on transforming health by leveraging artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and an ecosystem of partners for Mayo Clinic. This is made possible by an extraordinary team of people at Mayo and collaborators worldwide. This blog will document their story.
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Dispatch from the Digital Health Frontier by John D. Halamka MD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License
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About Me
- John Halamka
- As president of the Mayo Clinic Platform, I lead a portfolio of new digital platform businesses focused on transforming health by leveraging artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and an ecosystem of partners for Mayo Clinic.
7 comments:
5 fingers on each hand? 5 toes on each foot? Is it that humans have a natural Decimal-based system built-in?
2 + 3 = 5. Have you been reading Shea and Wilson?
David, I noticed the same thing! I am sure there is nothing to worry about ;-) the number 5 or 2(2^1)+1(since it is a Fermat Prime), has always had a special significance to me also. I'm not sure if this is something spiritual, mathematical, scientific, or combination of all of these...
5 is the only number that is in multiple instances of twin primes (and is also the sum of the previous two primes) The number 5 has many other distinctives that make it very specisl indded.
The article by Dee Finney found at:
http://www.greatdreams.com/five/five.htm explains why I am the fifth person to comment.
Oops, now this comment is the fifth.
Interesting... as I'm reading this blog, I look up at my whiteboard and notice the 3 items that I have left on this board which have survived a number of white board sessions over the months. The first is written in English from my nephew with five words on it. The 2nd and 3rd are written in Chinese from my sons both have five characters on it. Umm... does this span across cultural boundaries as well?
Umm...interesting, indeed! I began blogging in May -Older American's Month- as e-Older American. May is the fifth month of the year. Does five have significance across generations (i.e. Chenge's sons and nephew) as well as cultures?
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