gsilvera American Patient Series, Blog, Healthcare

Bold Enough to Care: Declaring a New Age in Healthcare

From Daring to Know, to Daring to Care

“Sapere aude.” Dare to know.

This phrase, born from the Age of Enlightenment, gave shape to one of humanity’s boldest experiments: democracy. It was a call to trust human reason, to seek truth, and to pursue knowledge for the betterment of society. It is no exaggeration to say that this call is also at the root of the American healthcare system.

We dared to know.

And because of that, medicine became more than ritual and superstition. We moved from leeches and bloodletting to science and discovery. From trial-and-error to systematic study. From a handful of healers to institutions devoted to research and training.

But daring to know has always had two faces: one of progress, and one of harm.

The Light Side of Knowledge

The Enlightenment promise was immense for medical advancement. By daring to know, physicians and scientists unlocked treatments, surgical techniques, and public health advancements that saved countless lives. We moved away from home remedies and homeopathic medicine (though some may have merit) towards evidence based scientifically replicable treatments. And, overall, we have benefited greatly from this. America became a leader in medical innovation, pioneering everything from anesthesia to organ transplantation to complex health systems designed to serve millions.

Our healthcare system, while messy, fragmented, and inequitable, is built on that foundation of relentless curiosity and advancement. That curiosity has given us breakthroughs that continue to ripple across the world.

The Dark Side of Knowledge

But there is also a shadow in this history. Daring to know often came at the expense of those deemed expendable.

In the 19th century, medical schools often relied on “body snatching” to fuel their teaching. The poor and disenfranchised, those without wealth, family advocates, or social standing, were the most vulnerable. In many schools, it even became a celebrated rite of passage for students to prove their eagerness to learn anatomy by breaking into county or city morgues to steal the bodies of unclaimed persons, alongside other inhumane practices. (Yes, really! See more)

Later, experimentation without consent became institutionalized in horrifying ways. The Tuskegee Study withheld treatment from Black men with syphilis in the name of research. The so-called “fathers of gynecology” conducted painful experiments on enslaved Black women without anesthesia, their suffering treated as collateral for medical progress.

Robert Thom/The Collection of Michigan Medicine

These legacies are not distant. We see their imprint in today’s health disparities, especially in the elevated maternal mortality rates among Black mothers in the United States. Instances when concerned pregnant black women’s pleas are ignored or dismissed, even powerful and famous black women, like tennis GOAT Serena Williams and track star Allyson Felix. Tori Bowie, Olympic Gold Medalist, tragically died due to complications of her pregnancy in 2023, complications that endured in part because of her mistrust of the health system, according to sources close to her.

Daring to know, untethered from dignity, dehumanizes those who were most vulnerable at the presumed benefit of the greater society. But, that perverse arithmetic need not endure. No life is more valuable than another’s, and we can venture to expand knowledge without exploitation and mistreatment.

A New Dare for Our Time

So what does sapere aude mean for us today?

It cannot mean knowledge at any cost. It cannot mean discovery through exploitation. It cannot mean progress that leaves dignity behind.

Instead, we must expand the phrase: dare to know, and dare to care.

  • Dare to know how dignified our practice can be.
  • Dare to know how much we can elevate the voices of patients, families, and communities.
  • Dare to know how equity can be woven into the fabric of healthcare delivery.
  • Dare to know how joy and trust can coexist with science and discovery.
Daring Care, G.A. Silvera (2025)

We already know how to push the limits of medicine. The harder, braver work is daring to know how much better, how more compassionate, and how more just our care can become.

The Age of Enlightenment taught us to pursue truth. The American experiment taught us to test whether self-governance could endure. Our healthcare history teaches us that knowledge without dignity will always fall short.

Now, the next frontier is not just science. It is human connection. It is time to dare not only to know, but to care.

The next age could leave behind a legacy of innovation, trust, compassion, and joy. Whether history calls it the age of co-production, the age of compassion, or the age of caring doesn’t matter. What matters is that patient advocates declare a new age, again and again, at every indignity, every injustice, and every inequity we see in our systems. We must inject them with empathy, infuse them with compassion, and embolden them with joy so that no patient is ever left to suffer in a system too bold to care.

We must be bold enough to care.

Curare aude, G.A. Silvera, 2025

gsilvera American Patient Series, Healthcare

Striving for Excellence in Healthcare: The Good, Better, Best Approach

Good…

Lately, things have been going right.
Awards. Wins. New role. Family milestones. All the stuff that signals progress.

And I am grateful, deeply.
But I’m not satisfied.

There’s this motto I grew up with, something my Caribbean parents (and just about every schoolteacher I knew) used to say:
“Good, better, best. Never let it rest until your good becomes your better and your better becomes your best.”

It was drilled into us as kids, but the older I get, the more I understand it’s not about perfection. It’s about pressure, positive pressure. The kind of positive momentum that keeps you moving even when the world says you’ve probably done well enough.

Better…

Lately, I’ve been thinking about what it means to reach for “best”. Not as a final destination, but as a standard of intention. In healthcare, especially, that’s a radical concept. “Best” is a moving target. “Best” is context-dependent. “Best” is often unattainable.

But when we say “best”, we don’t necessarily mean ideal. In every scenario, the ideal is that our patients would not need us, that they would live healthful lives, in environments that prioritize their wellness, that the powers that be would center every decision on patient’s individual wellbeing. Ideal is not attainable, but our best is.

When we tell ourselves that we will deliver the care that we’d give our mothers.

That’s the real metric. That is a standard we can hold ourselves to.

With Mother’s Day on the horizon, I find myself asking:
If your mother were the patient, would you be okay with “pretty good”? With “most days, we get it right”?
How could you justify anything less than your best for her?

You wouldn’t. You couldn’t.
And that’s the whole point.

(The image is not my mother, she would want you to know that. She’s much more beautiful than even AI could imagine.)

The Science of Striving: Goal Setting in Healthcare

Research underscores the importance of goal setting in driving performance and improvement. In healthcare, setting specific, challenging goals has been shown to effectively motivate attainment, especially when formulated within a SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) . Moreover, engaging patients in goal-setting processes enhances their confidence, motivation, and satisfaction with care, highlighting the collaborative nature of striving for “best” in clinical settings .

Tim Duncan: A Case Study in Consistent Excellence

Tim Duncan, the NBA Hall of Famer known as “The Big Fundamental,” exemplifies the “good, better, best” philosophy. Raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Duncan was taught this mantra by his late mother, which he carried throughout his basketball career . His unwavering commitment to excellence, humility, and teamwork led to five NBA championships and a legacy of consistent performance. Duncan’s approach wasn’t about flashy plays but about doing the right thing, the right way, every time. A lesson that resonates deeply in the pursuit of excellence in healthcare.

Best…

Patient Experience Week just passed. Nurses Week is here. These are moments when we pause to celebrate the incredible things healthcare professionals make possible when they operate at full capacity, when they lead with heart, skill, and grit. We’ve seen what’s possible when people show up and give it everything they’ve got.

But the celebrations also shine a light on what we’re still not doing. On the systems that are still too slow. On the experiences that are still inconsistent. On the gaps we’ve normalized.

And if we’re serious about change, we have to admit that we haven’t seen us at our best yet.

You think you know what you’re capable of, but our best is still out ahead of us, waiting to be reached.
Potential is a dare.
Best is a challenge.

The wins are worth celebrating. It is important to celebrate each other in the pursuit of excellence. But we are not celebrating an end, we have not accomplished all that we will accomplish. We are celebrating our ongoing commitment to the noble pursuit of excellence in health care.


Because we’re serious about equity, about empathy, about excellence, we can’t stop at “good” enough.
We can’t even stop at “better.”
We have to keep going. For our patients. For our teams.
And yes, for our mothers.

In both healthcare and life, the pursuit of “best” is a continuous journey. It’s about setting goals that challenge us, collaborating with others to achieve them, and never settling for “good enough.” As we honor the dedication of healthcare professionals during Nurses Week and reflect on the care we provide, let’s remember to strive for the excellence we’d expect for our own mothers. Because in the end, every patient deserves nothing less than our best.