Hi Everyone,
So this was not the way I wanted to start the next chapter. As many of you know — and I regretfully inform those who do not — my brother Brian passed away sometime within 24 hours of my hitting send on the previous Live Life Love newsletter. A surreal coincidence to know that as I reported to you how much I enjoyed the experience that he and I had shared, there would never be an opportunity to share another experience with him again. As you might expect, Brian’s death has led to some pretty deep introspection the past few months. As a result, this is a difficult newsletter to write this quarter. The words are not flowing. I could try to end with some catchy quote about life and/or death, but that would be the easy route. The experience has opened an uninvited path to some deep work on my thoughts about the meaning of contribution and legacy. I hope to evolve this “project” into something much bigger than a personal platform. However, for this particular installment I have to go back to basics, which is just remembering to breathe.
Business, Innovation and Entrepreneurship: This quarter’s interview is a compilation about “big data” analytics with four exceptional thought leaders: Jafar Adibi, Ph.D., the President, Co-founder, and CTO of re|unify; Jeffrey Cooper, the Senior Manager of Business Development at Samsung; Mark Newman, the President of Heads Up Analytics; and Keith Catanzano, a Partner at 2River Consulting Group. My collaborative interview focusing on business issues involving “big data” can be read here.
Health and Wellness: My health and wellness interview this quarter is with Dr. Henry DePhillips, who is the Chief Medical Officer of Teladoc. Prior to Teladoc, Dr. DePhillips was the Chief Medical Officer at MEDecision. He also previously served as the Head of Business Development for McKinsey’s international Health Systems Institute, as well as served as Sr. Medical Director at Independence Blue Cross of Pennsylvania. My interview with Dr. DePhillips about telemedicine and telehealth can be read by clicking here.
Life Experience: This quarter I traveled to Baltimore, Maryland, and checked out the American Visionary Art Museum. The museum showcases art from artists who are primarily self-taught. As such, much of the art and installations revealed the personal vision of the artist, rather than following standard conventions.
American Visionary Art Museum | Baltimore, Maryland
Contribution: My friend Alex lost his wife Samantha to cancer on November 1, 2013. She was a free spirit and certainly would be at home at the American Visionary Art Museum. When she passed, she left behind an unfinished album of songs, and it was bittersweet to be part of a Kickstarter campaign to get it finished. If you would like to learn more about it, or potentially contribute yourself, you can do so by clicking here.
I would like to conclude by simply saying thank you to the many of you that reached out to me and/or my family these past few months. The warmth that was bestowed upon us was overwhelming and helped us tremendously navigate through this difficult time. I love my brother very much, and take solace that his spirit will be interwoven into this effort as I continue forward. Borrowing from his humility and sense of adventure, I will do my best to increase the utility of information this project provides, as well as seek out new experiences that are worthy of sharing — carrying his memory with me.
In health,
Dr. Rucker
P.S. Again, for those of you that knew Brian, my hope is that this is not the medium you are finding out about his passing. Brian’s obituary is available online here.