"Comedians have become the truth-tellers. Satire allows you to say almost anything. That's where truth is spoken to power in our society. When you sugarcoat a bitter truth with humor, it makes the medicine go down.”
—Malcolm Gladwell
Much in the way the comic strip, Dilbert, taught us about corporate office culture, Doc-Related now takes us behind the clinic doors of today’s ailing US healthcare system. A medley of anecdotes, comics, and data-backed musings, Doc-Related’s “truth-tellers” turn out to be a half-dozen characters you will surely recognize. Why? Because author, Dr. Peter Valenzuela, has literally created them from his 20-year experience as a practicing family physician and health system executive. Whether you’re one of the 16 million Americans who work in the US healthcare industry, or simply someone who has tried to navigate its bureaucratic maze of insurance plans or electronic record systems—Doc-Related will help you see these challenges in a new light.
“Dr. Valenzuela takes much-needed aim at the painful absurdities of our current healthcare system using the most incisive tool possible: humor. For those slaving away in the trenches of medicine or struggling to keep the lights on in administration, Doc Related is the perfect way to laugh so we don’t have to cry. By hilariously highlighting our most insidious problems, he just might open some minds to real solutions.”
“Doc-Related is an exceptionally fun and timely read, perfectly delivered while America is suffering through the ‘post-pandemic’ burnout and the Great Resignation. It uses humor and compassion to illustrate the problems that are challenging our system in ways that are thought-provoking.
Dr. Valenzuela’s storytelling gift is the ability to share the occasional ridiculousness of the complexity of medical practice in a way that gives everyone a personalized “peek behind the curtain” to everyone who touches healthcare, whether you are a physician, administrator, or patient. I loved the stories, the cartoons, and the hope this book represents.”
“Practicing medicine is a stressful job. Add in all the other moving parts—and consider that doctors have huge responsibilities yet little control over their daily lives—and you can see why it’s a recipe for burnout. Doc-Related captures the complexities of a physician’s world in a super funny way. It’s rare that an author is able to shed light on a serious subject, provide great tactical advice, and make the reader laugh, but Dr. Valenzuela has done all three.”
Family physician, healthcare leader and author Dr. Peter Valenzuela’s new book “Doc-Related” uses art, humor, and clinical and leadership wisdom to highlight challenges in healthcare and propose real solutions.
Dr. Peter Valenzuela is a family physician and executive who’s worked in multiple healthcare settings over the last two decades including private practice, academics, multi-specialty medical groups and integrated delivery systems. Dr. Valenzuela recently created a book that is a medley of anecdotes and comics supported with timely data presented in a satirical format. The chapters identify what’s broken in our health care system for clinicians, practice leaders, and patients, along with what we can do to fix them.
