Recently, I had a pair of experiences that opened my eyes to a whole new set of opportunities for philanthropy as it relates to emerging markets.  The first of these experiences took place a month ago when I was trying to clear out our garage after we renovated our home.

I called the President of our town baseball program and offered to donate a box of baseball equipment my younger son had outgrown, including metal bats, small-sized baseball gloves, and some other odds and ends.  At the bottom of the box were two torn baseball gloves, one of which was what I used when I was growing up.  To my surprise, he wanted everything, including the torn gloves.  When I asked about the torn gloves, he informed me that the program shipped torn gloves to Polish micro-businesses that repaired and resold them.

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Last week, I was at a series of meetings in Washington, D.C. talking with members of Congress and their staffs about the recommendations of a coalition of which I am a member called the CEO Health Transformation Community.  One of the other members is Dr. Ray Zastrow of Quad Med, a provider of onsite corporate clinics based in Milwaukee.

Dr. Zastrow made a memorable comment many times during the day.  He said that Quad Med increased the quality of care, and significantly reduced its cost, by “slowing down the practice of medicine.” He said that Quad Med health care professionals are expected to spend 30 minutes with each patient even if they diagnose the problem in the first five minutes. He said that every visit to the clinic is a “teachable moment,” and the health care professional must take the opportunity to learn more about how the patient is feeling overall. (more…)