Past Editions
First Edition | May 2024
Welcome to the first edition of The DOCument, a periodic update for the DOC community. Our mission is to catalyze a community of influential leaders across health, business, and culture to change the trajectory of healthcare both personally and across society at large. Thank you for joining us!
The Program
DOC’s narrative is rooted in a commitment to assembling a cadre of distinguished clinicians and scientists at the forefront of medical innovation. We’re dedicated to innovation through rigorous science, passionate about the future of medicine, and keenly aware of the importance of recognizing and building upon the discoveries shaping our current landscape. Our community is driven by high-integrity scientists who prioritize craft over public persona.
We find ourselves at a critical juncture in medical history. Technological advancements have outpaced society’s capacity to understand and safely implement, leading to a prevalence of science that is effectively marketed but poorly substantiated. At DOC, our focus is not only on advancing great science, but also on reshaping how this science is communicated and understood. This mission has guided our selective invitation to you, recognizing your role as a narrative changer, leader, and financial backer in transforming our nation’s healthcare dialogue.
We are in the process of launching DOC’s inaugural program, actively engaging with faculty, founding members, and strategic partners. Your unique insights are invaluable to this endeavor. Our goal is to foster a program where every participant becomes a “Conversant,” actively engaged in a dynamic, unified plenary session within a salon-style setting in a single, inspiring venue. Our Conversants, experts in their respective fields, will participate in sessions that align with their expertise, led by Faculty members discussing cutting-edge developments across various medical disciplines such as stem cell research, cardiology, women’s health, and microbiology.
In the coming months, we will introduce specific topics for our program and invite your input to refine our agenda. If you are interested in contributing as a Conversant and enriching our discussions, we encourage you to engage with us further by responding to this form.
Recommended Reading
What we’re reading: The Wall Street Journal on fraudulent science publishing and The New York Times on pseudo science on social networks. Bonus read: Why Scientific Fraud Is Suddenly Everywhere (New York Magazine).
Why it matters: This past week two headlines crossed our desk that reflect the challenge DOC seeks to address. The medical publishing industry is overwhelmed with low quality and in some cases fraudulent science, leading one publisher, Wiley, to shutter 19 of its scientific journals (WSJ).
In a related story, The New York Times published an OpEd by academic psychologist Lucy Foulkes of Oxford University decrying a social-media driven diagnosis of “High functioning anxiety” that she believes is causing serious harm. “Young people have been flooded with mental health information on social media and elsewhere,” the article states. “But much of it is unreliable and counterproductive. If you think you have a mental illness, you may start to feel even more anxious or depressed. It’s kind of like a reverse placebo,” also known by scientists as the “nocebo effect,” Foulkes says.
What next: We need better tools to sort out who’s lying and why – and we need to rethink how we accredit academic publishing, a foundational tool of “truth in medicine.”
Faculty Updates
Dr. Tony Wyss-Coray and his fellow researchers graced the cover of Nature this past December with a breakthrough study of aging in individual organs.
Berra Yazar-Klonsinski, Ph.D. and her collaborators were featured in a New York Times piece this past Fall detailing MDMA-assisted therapy’s impact in reducing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
James K. Min, MD’s Cleerly, a diagnostic health company focused on heart disease, received the FDA’s breakthrough device designation for software delivering AI-powered coronary artery disease risk assessments from medical imaging results.
Dr. Stephanie Kuku was named to Equinox, Inc.’s Health Advisory Board.
Dr. Eddie Chang’s research on brain-computer interfaces has led to restoration of speech for a paralyzed woman.
Dr. Eric Verdin reminds us to beware the hype dominating the longevity and wellness industry today. “The serious scientists get drowned out by the noise of the crazy claims,” Verdin says. Not at DOC!
Welcome To The Inner Circle
DOC is an elite community, curated with the utmost care to ensure magic happens. Membership is by invitation only. This selective process ensures DOC remains a community for the discerning and connected. If you’ve been invited and have a friend, colleague or associate whose pedigree and character you believe meets DOC’s standards, (curious, connected and convivial), we invite you to submit their name for consideration. And if you’ve not yet registered, you can do so here. Please connect us to anyone you feel should be part of the Truth in Medicine movement.
Get your rooms now! Every room at The Estate Yountville is special, but you’ll have far more choices if you reserve your room early. For more information, reach out to our DOC concierge at concierge@doc.health, or contact a reservation agent at The Estate directly at (707) 945-4541.
If you have not yet accepted your invitation to attend DOC in Napa, Oct 24-26, you can do so here. Or, If you would like to decline your invitation and no longer receive any DOC correspondence, please do so here.