For those of you who have not shared a photo and personal bio, please do as I like to share this information with each guest.  It’s also part of the spirit of Jeffersonian Dinners to create an atmosphere where people can get to know each other better. A few questions that I will pose to get people thinking are: What was the most memorable patient experience (positive or negative) you have had with our health care system? Is capitalism the optimal economic system for developing a healthy climate for creating a health care system that provides the highest quality care for the most people at the lowest cost? How can we address privacy concerns about our medical information?  Does the need for collecting medical data for public health reporting purposes outweigh our right to privacy? Is physician autonomy necessary to drive the best results?  If so, how can we protect doctors’ ability to make medical decisions?  Or do we need a more automated set of rules that drive doctor’s decisions? Should nurses have the freedom to treat patients independently of doctors?  What effect would this freedom have on our health care system? How can we create a system that maximizes innovation?  Here are two contrasting articles: http://www.pnhp.org/news/2007/november/does_universal_healt.php https://fee.org/articles/markets-run-health-care-better-than-government-mandates/ Here is a further description of the format.  Please let me know if you have any questions! The Rule:

1. You must have a single conversation. You talk to the whole table and the whole table listens. The whole time. That’s 8 to 14 brains on one topic. It’s powerful and unique.

The progress of the evening:

1. Come with a list of 5 or 7 questions you might pose to deepen the conversation as it progresses. 2. Begin with your guests’ stories. Each person shares a personal reflection on the question you posed ahead of the dinner. Try to connect with their personal passions around the topic. 3. Let the conversation take you where the passion goes. 4. As the host, insure that all participants feel welcome and have a chance to talk. Don’t run it like a meeting (“Joe, we haven’t heard from you yet”) but as a congenial dinner party (“Joe, I’d love to hear more about how you feel about [something that you know about Joe and how he feels].” Bottom line is this (as it was for Mr. Jefferson) it’s all about human beings connecting with each other. 5. Give your guests an opportunity to share something at the end of the evening – something that they learned, an idea that was especially inspiring or an item they plan to follow-up on in some way. Depending on the purpose of your event, you may wish to formalize this more (next steps, notes from the evening, etc).

After your dinner:

1. Share contact information from the evening – this can be a simple email to thank all the participants.