For nearly 25 years, I’ve had one foot in medicine as a pathologist and the other in the political arena. Over that time, I’ve written commentary on everything from corporate insurance cartels taking over medicine to the federal bureaucracy blocking lifesaving cancer blood tests.

Every single time I hit “send” on a new draft, a cynical voice in my head asks the exact same questions: Will the editor accept this, as they’re overwhelmed with tons of these a day? And even if they do, is anyone actually reading this?