I am not sure whether or not blogs have Prologues.  If they do, are they called Problogs?  At any rate, a little introduction to this blog seems in order.  With blogs, it’s hard to know whether anybody ever reads an introduction, since the natural progression seems to be to read the most current entry and then work backwards.  After a few entries, the introduction would become some sort of long-lost historical record floating unnoticed in dusty cyberspace.

Still, starting with a long-lost historical record seems like a good place to begin this blog.  And since, in all likelihood, it will be unread, we might as well start with a confession:  I don’t know what I am doing here.  Before you think that there is some sort of big existential angst brewing here, let me clarify:  it is unclear to me why I am writing a blog and it is equally unclear to me how one writes a blog.

The simplest answer as to why I am writing a blog is that I was encouraged to do so by colleagues.  It was not an easy sell.  To be honest, writing a blog seems a little vain to me.  What sold me on the value of the blog, or better to say, the potential value of the blog, is that it can be a way to communicate to others some things that they might not otherwise know  – not so much about me personally, but about the amazing things that I see everyday as part of my job as the President of the Medical University of South Carolina.

The tipping point for me to start writing this blog was my recent experience as a patient in our health care system.  I learned a lot that one doesn’t really know as the president of this university and it has changed the way I think about what we do and how we do it.  My first few entries will be focused on those experiences.  Maybe those entries can build up enough momentum to carry me forward into a broader range of topics.

If you are reading this far, my expectations already have been exceeded.  Thanks for visiting this blog and please let me know your thoughts and reactions.