What Would Harry Say About Healthcare? A Philosopher’s Scalpel on the State of Modern Medicine and Dentistry

I’ve had the privilege of caring for many remarkable individuals—people whose stories you don’t read in textbooks (some who you might have) but most whose lives were no less extraordinary. There was the radiation safety officer at Columbiawho beat Bobby Fischer at chess. Ruth, a Holocaust survivor, a twin, who survived the experiments of Josef Mengele.

And then there was Harry Frankfurt.

Harry was a philosophy professor at Princeton and the author of On Bullshit, a title that earned him both notoriety and well-deserved admiration. Our conversations were never short on depth—or dry humor.

What I admired most about Harry wasn’t just his sharp mind, but his surgical precision in naming what others danced around. He argued that bullshit was more dangerous than lying. Why? Because the liar still cares about the truth—they’re just trying to conceal it. The bullshitter, on the other hand, doesn’t care whether what they’re saying is true or false. They just say what’s convenient, what sells, what lands.  

In the dental world we see that a lot.  Many are called “gurus”, though their primary output has more of a brown hue than the transparency one would hope for.

If Harry were still around, I have no doubt what he’d say about today’s healthcare system: It’s got a serious bullshit problem. And not the kind you can cure with Imodium.

The Cult of Metrics

Modern healthcare is obsessed with data. Not insight. Not wisdom. Data.

We measure satisfaction scores, compliance rates, RVUs, press Ganey curves, and “engagement” levels with the religious fervor of medieval monks counting indulgences. But ask a frontline provider if any of this has helped them care better for patients, and you’ll likely get a long pause…followed by a knowing eye-roll.

Harry would have called this exactly what it is: bullshit that looks like accountability. It’s performative precision—numbers that are technically correct but functionally irrelevant. We’re not lying about outcomes; we’re just tracking the ones that look good on a dashboard.

The Language of Care

Take the phrase “patient-centered care.” Noble, right? But much of the system isn’t designed to deliver it—it’s designed to document it.

Patients wait weeks for appointments, get 8.9 minutes with a clinician, and then receive a survey asking if they felt “heard.” The result? We’re teaching teams to ask scripted empathy questions not because they matter, but because they score.

Frankfurt would call this out as truthiness with a stethoscope—language designed to simulate sincerity while sidestepping substance.

Bureaucratic Theater

No conversation about bullshit would be complete without tipping our hat to insurance pre-authorizations, coding gymnastics, and regulatory bafflegab. These rituals consume enormous amounts of time and energy, not in pursuit of better outcomes, but in the artful dance of saying “no” in the most opaque, plausible way possible.

This is bureaucracy as performance art—systems designed not for truth, but for deniability.

Branding Over Integrity

And then there’s the branding. Hospitals labeled “world-class” that can’t get phone calls returned. Wellness programs promoted in glossy brochures that quietly cut behavioral health services.

Harry would have seen right through this. He understood that when the appearance of goodness becomes more important than actually being good, bullshit becomes not just a byproduct—but the product itself.

So What Do We Do About It?

The answer isn’t to get better at faking sincerity. It’s to return to what matters:

The fix won’t be found in another dashboard or slogan. It starts with leaders—especially in healthcare—being willing to call out bullshit for what it is. And then, bravely, choosing a different path.

Not the easy one. Not the one with the best lighting or the catchiest copy.

The true one.

Just as Harry would have wanted.

To No More BS,

Michael

Ready to Practice Without Bullshit?

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Learn more HERE or send a message if you’re ready to take the first step toward truth-based transformation.