Healing the Sick Care System: Why People Matter

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Healing the Sick Care System: Why People Matter

January 13, 2026

A Human-Centered Blueprint for Fixing What Medicine Forgot

NEW YORK - At a time when health care feels more complex, costly and disconnected than ever, Healing the Sick Care System: Why People Matter (February 1^st, 2026) arrives with a clear message: the system is not broken because it lacks innovation, talent or investment, but because it has lost sight of the people it exists to serve.

Written by Gil Bashe, Chair Global Health & Purpose at FINN Partners, this 252-page book challenges leaders across health, life sciences, technology and policy ecosystems to rethink how care is designed, delivered, and experienced. Drawing on a career that spans battlefield medicine, health policy, patient advocacy, private equity, and global agency leadership, Bashe offers a rare, inside-out perspective on why well-intentioned systems increasingly fail patients and physicians alike.

"In a time when medicine grows more complex by the day, this book powerfully reaffirms the physician's role as a trusted partner in every person's health journey. Gil Bashe reminds us that healing begins with listening, collaboration and compassion. His insights champion a system where health professionals and patients work side by side to achieve better outcomes and a better care experience," said John Whyte, MD, MPH, CEO and executive vice president, American Medical Association.

Healing the Sick Care System is not a critique from the sidelines. It is a call to action grounded in lived experience, hard data and deeply human stories. Bashe reframes health not as an industry problem to be optimized, but as a shared human enterprise that must be rebuilt around trust, empathy, prevention and partnership. He speaks from the experience of a seasoned health communication executive and as a parent of a young adult with a rare disease.

"This book is about remembering that health care is, at its core, a human endeavor," says Bashe. "When people feel seen, heard, and supported, better outcomes follow. Healing the system begins when we restore trust, collaboration and a shared sense of responsibility for one another."

Why This Book Is Different

The book's foreword is written by Tom Lawry, formerly a senior Microsoft leader and the bestselling author of Hacking Health Care and Health Care Nation, as well as one of the most influential voices shaping modern thinking on the use of AI in health systems globally. Lawry frames the book as arriving at a national inflection point, where burnout, chronic disease, cost and mistrust converge and argues that technology alone cannot repair a system that has lost its moral compass.

Peter Finn, Founding Partner of FINN Partners and Chair of the Catskill Mountain Foundation, underscores why the book resonates far beyond health care: "Gil makes a compelling case that purpose and performance are not trade-offs-they are mutually reinforcing. This book challenges leaders to rethink how culture, trust, and human-centered decision-making drive sustainable growth, stronger organizations and long-term value."

Throughout the book, Bashe rejects false choices: purpose versus performance, innovation versus empathy, markets versus humanity. Instead, he shows how systems built around people perform better, scale faster and earn trust and why this perspective is the vanishing ingredient in health reform.

Industry Leaders Respond

Early readers from across the health, media, life sciences, and patient advocacy sectors have called the book urgent, clarifying and deeply human.

Paul Holmes, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of PRovoke Media, notes that the book is "grounded in a clear understanding of the complexities of the American health system and a genuine empathy for the obstacles consumers and health professionals face."

Patient advocate Matthew Zachary, Founder of Stupid Cancer, writes that the book "challenges leaders to stop hiding behind process and own the human consequences of the decisions they approve."

From the innovation community, Bruno Cohen, Chair of the Galien Foundation, adds that the book "resonates with the mission of advancing breakthroughs that honor humanity as much as science."

Additional endorsements come from leaders including John Whyte, MD, CEO and Executive Vice President of the American Medical Association; Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, health economist and advisor; Daniel Kraft, MD, Founder of NextMed Health; Katherine H. Saunders, MD, obesity medicine specialist; Grace Cordovano, PhD, nationally recognized patient advocate; Sally Ann Frank, Global Lead for Health & Life Sciences at Microsoft for Startups; Ron Cohen, MD, biotech founder; Michael Weamer, CEO of The Marfan Foundation; and Stan Kachnowski, PhD, Co-Founder and Chairman of HITLAB.

Availability

Healing the Sick Care System: Why People Matter, published by Thought Leader Press, will be available on Amazon in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle editions, with presales starting in January 2026. An audiobook edition is slated for release in Spring 2026. All of the author's royalties will be directed to charity,

About Gil Bashe

Gil Bashe is Chair Global Health and Purpose at FINN Partners, one of the world's largest independent communications agencies. A former combat medic turned award-winning health communications leader, he has shaped the field across global agencies, trade associations, and private equity ventures. Recognized by PM360 with a Lifetime Achievement Award, named among PRWeek's Top 30 Most Influential People in Health PR, honored as an MM&M Top 10 Innovation Catalyst, and tapped by PRovoke Media as a Top 25 Innovator, Gil serves on the boards of the American Diabetes Association and the Marfan Foundation. He is editor-in-chief of Medika Life and a Galien Foundation Prix Galien Award Judge. His mission is simple: rebuild a health system that remembers its humanity.

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