Week one is upon us - week one of the college football season. It's one of my favorite times of the year, second only to March Madness for, yes, college basketball. Yes, it's fair to say that I like collegiate sports!

This weekend, it didn't pay to be the home team. Well, at least for quite a few Division I schools. Michigan, Clemson, Texas A&M, Virginia, Pittsburgh ...  all home teams that lost game one this weekend. Let's put in a quick "welcome" to the first year coaches - Rich Rodriguez at Michigan and Mike Sherman at Texas A&M. Have fun in the Big 10 and Big 12. Add Virginia Tech to that last, albeit on a road trip to East Carolina. All quite unpredictable and surprising losses. Welcome to week one of college football!

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We all want to believe that what is being done in our health care world is correct and for the right reasons. It is an issue of trust. For years, there has been a relative reverence for the role of health care providers (physicians in particular) in our community. And we have gone through history believing that health care providers act in our best interests.

If there is one area in which this trust may be betrayed, it is in the health care world.

The conspiracy of silence extends to our health care environment. The “silence” covers a broad scope – from evidence-based practice issues, to self-referral and “referral for profit”, and to over-utilization of services. And yes, these issues exist in virtually all communities in this country.

Let' s start off with the most basic element of health care – that of “evidence-based medicine” (also referred to as “evidence-based practice”). In simple terms, this refers to practice patterns (how patients are actually diagnosed and treated) that are consistent with the scientific literature and/or established clinical guidelines. Why do we care about “evidence”? Because our task as health care providers is quality of care – and science is required to establish what constitutes “effective care”. Clinical practice guidelines don't tell a provider what they can or cannot do - they simply provide the framework for effective clinical practice. We are long past the days of leeches and blood-letting – we now have science to guide us. Without it, long-term health care costs will be higher, and the overall health status of our community will dwindle.

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"The inability to challenge our belief systems in the face of good scientific evidence is the primary limiting factor in the advancement of both health care and coaching, as well as human performance and injury prevention" (excerpt taken from "RunSmart" - 2008)

There is a conspiracy of silence in our community. It is evident in our health care, and it is evident in the world of fitness and coaching. It is a powerful undercurrent, a stealthy viral element that attacks us from all sides. Not a day goes by in which I don't witness it's effects. And the first step required to get down to the real issues in health care and fitness on a much broader scale, is to acknowledge and address it.

Much of what we experience in the context of health care and fitness is what I would term "Flat Earth Syndrome". Let me explain. For a great part of world history, civilization thought that the world was flat. It was part of the commonly-held belief system of the ages. It was actually part of the religious beliefs as well.

And then we discovered that - it wasn't. If you sailed a ship, you didn't fall off the edge of the world. You actually just kept on sailing. And suddenly, there was science to prove that the world was, indeed, spherical.

“Shhhhh, don't talk about this. We have empirical evidence – and that's all we have ever needed. We need to be careful with this science stuff, because if it takes hold, we might lose our power and control. So let's just be quiet about it. Maybe if we don't talk about it, it will go away."

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Ahhh the beauty of the RSS feed reader!

It's tough to wade through a bunch of websites that you like to read. Sure, you can keep them in your "Favorites" or your "Bookmarks", but it's a lot of web cruising to read them all. I recently discovered the RSS feed reader - which allows you to save all your favorite feeds in one place, and then be able to read all the headlines without the web surfing. It allows you to read so many more cool things in a lot less time.

Today Chris Brogan posted on Blog Day 2008 - which just so happens to be today, August 31.  That being the case, let's spread the word on blogs - being one of those bloggers out there that's trying to write material worthy of human consumption!

The goal is to find 5 new blogs and introduce them to the world. Hell, how about introducing 5 blogs that I find entertaining, educational, and intriguing?

So here goes ...

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