Marc Gorelick, MD, CEO of Minneapolis-based Children's Minnesota, was concerned about gun violence long before the surgeon general declared it a public health crisis in June.
In 1988, when he was a second-year pediatric resident, he wrote a letter to the editor in The Washington Post about the issue.
"This has been a longtime concern of mine," Dr. Gorelick told Becker's. "For me, it's based on my personal experiences of taking care of violence victims. People who have been injured by others. People who've injured themselves. People who've died of gunshot injuries. So it really stems from my clinical experience."
More recently, his concern stems from the fact that when he wrote that letter, gun violence was the second-leading cause of death in American children and adolescents. In 2020, gun violence surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of death in this group.
"The problem has gotten worse, and I, of course, have a different perspective now," Dr. Gorelick said.
"I have my past experience as a front-line clinician taking care of patients, but I also have the perspective of a health system leader who's looking at the big picture and seeing the enormous impact it has on our healthcare system and all the patients we serve, as well as the people who work in the system. The impact it has on all of us. And that desire to have that broader impact, to use my position to maybe try to generate awareness in a different way."
He is doing so through the release of his new book, "Saving Our Kids: An ER Doc’s Common-Sense Solution to the Gun Crisis." The book is available to buy on Amazon, with all proceeds going toward gun violence prevention efforts at Children's Minnesota.
Dr. Gorelick also joined the CEO Council on Gun Violence Prevention and Safety, a group formed by Michael Dowling, president and CEO of New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health. In June, members of the council met with the White House to review progress that has been made and call attention to areas in need of improvement.
Dr. Gorelick, who has helmed one of the nation's largest pediatric systems since 2017, began the process for the book about a year and a half ago. He drew from blog posts he has written related to gun violence prevention as well as his extensive experience as a pediatric emergency physician and leader of Children's Minnesota.
"We have talked about the fact that gun violence is a public health crisis, and we, as healthcare leaders, [along with the surgeon general], have made statements to that effect," he said. "And to me, the disconnect was we were calling it a public health crisis, but we weren't acting like it.
"And in recent memory, we had a public health crisis, COVID-19, that we mobilized and treated as a public health crisis. I thought, 'What would it look like if we approached [gun violence prevention] from a public health perspective?' Learning lessons we've learned from other health crises we've dealt with in the past. The framing of the book is painting that picture of what it would mean to walk that walk of treating this like a public health crisis."
He views the book as a way to motivate clinicians and other healthcare workers who may not know where to start in treating the issue this way. He said he also hopes readers realize the public health approach recognizes that such problems are multifactorial.
"No one solution is going to address it. One has to look at all those aspects, all the elements of the public health triad, and recognize that it is a combination of, to some extent, education, and policy," Dr. Gorelick said.
For instance, Children's Minnesota is involved with hospital-based violence prevention programs, such as one in the Twin Cities called Next Step. The health system also sponsored a gun buyback program in recent years, in partnership with community organizations, and is involved in research efforts.
"One of the other things I talk about in the book is that public health solutions have to be evidence based," he said. "And historically in this country, we've not adequately funded research into gun injury and the causes and the prevention. So we're funding research efforts. Some of our clinicians are involved with that. And we want to continue to further support that so we can continue to have better information about what will work to reduce this terrible problem for kids."