Today we’d like to introduce you to Sam Bierstock, MD.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Started as Electrical Engineer then went to medical school 20 years practicing as an ophthalmologist in upstate New York. Left practice in 1990 and developed consulting career in for doctors and hospitals in the implementation of electronic medical records. Became chief medical officer of several medical record consulting firms and ultimately a Chief Medical Officer of IBM. Then started my own consulting business for corporations and start-up companies with innovative healthcare technologies.
In the meantime:
Professional harmonica player – spent 15 years touring the country with professional band performing musical parodies on subjects of political and social importance such as managed care, frivolous action lawsuits, etc. (www.managedmusic.com)
During that time wrote and performed the hit song “Before You Go” in tribute to our aging veterans of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. This song subsequently had more than 25 million streaming downloads on the Internet and continues to have national and international success (www.beforeyougo.us) and led to speaking engagements and performances for veterans events all over the US as well as on national radio and television features and performances.
Continue to record and produce satirical parody musical videos – the latest being “Might As Well FaceMask – We’re Addicted To Gloves” on YouTube as a commentary on the confusion generated by conflicting facemask recommendations and mandates.
Other endeavors:
Private Pilot
Professional Ski Instructor
Builds custom guitars
Fixed wing gliding
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
My most difficult decision was to leave a very successful practice as an ophthalmologist at age 42. In addition to financial considerations, I was uncertain as to what I would do next in life and spent several years struggling to find footing. I had become completely burned out at the time and genuinely viewed my decision as a life-death choice. To this day, I meet physicians and other professionals who feel trapped and unhappy in their professions and tell me that they wish they could be doing something else. I was no different but I was probably just foolish enough to do it without a plan. So I had four or five years of wandering in the desert.
I had played the harmonica with local bands and in bars for years and my life really changed when I started Dr. Sam & The Managed Care Blues Band in the mid 1990’s during the time when everyone, patients and doctors, hated managed care. It unexpectedly drew national attention that became yet another struggle to keep up with – but became quite a few wonderful years touring the country. September 11, 2001 impacted the conference world where most of our engagements were because no one was traveling, and requests for our performances stopped precipitously.
On my return from one show in California, I had a moving experience with a WWII Veteran that resulted in my writing the lyrics to “Before You Go”. (www.beforeyougo.us). Within two months of the song and its associated pictorial becoming available free on the Internet, it was being played as often as 50,000 times a day. The experience of being able to thank millions of our aging veterans for saving our way of life remains the greatest honor and the single most meaningful accomplishment of my life.
I am a creative person by nature, but creativity is not always accompanied by financial return as anyone in the world of the arts will understand. I have been enormously fortunate to also have expertise in medicine and medical technology and strong business skills so I would have to say that those tools have placed me in a position to enjoy personal and professional success in more than one arena.
