Reported by NPR Health
Raj Panjabi knows a thing or two about living with uncertainty. His family fled Liberia during the civil war, coming to the U.S. when he was 9. And he and his wife faced a crisis when their youngest child was diagnosed with heart failure. A physician, he served as malaria coordinator and then as global health security adviser in the Biden White House during the pandemic. Ben de la Cruz/NPR hide caption
Dr. Raj Panjabi's new book has a simple title: Safer: A Playbook.
Yes, a playbook like the kind sports managers use to firm up a winning strategy. But playbooks aren't just for games.
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"In the intensive care unit, we have a playbook when someone's heart stops beating," And when he was a White House health adviser during the COVID emergency, he says, "In the Situation Room, we had a playbook for pandemic preparedness."
Then there was his own family's situation — at age 1, his daughter was diagnosed with heart failure.
That experience inspired Panjabi to write a different kind of playbook. "I was frustrated that we didn't have a playbook for crises that appear in our own living room."
What he wrote is actually three books in one: The story of how he and his wife addressed their daughter's life-threatening condition; an exploration of public health issues that beset the globe – and straightforward advice for anyone with a living-room crisis. The book's chapter titles telegraph his philosophy: "Turn Denial Into Action." "Don't Go It Alone." "Get Ready to Pivot." "Embrace Uncertainty."
Panjabi was born to Indian parents in Liberia; his family immigrated to the United States when he was 9. He became a physician and went on to found the award-winning humanitarian group Last Mile Health, which employs community workers to bring health information to people in remote areas.
Raj Panjabi is interviewed at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 30. Ben de la Cruz/NPR hide caption
We interviewed Raj Panjabi at NPR headquarters on October 30. He had just flown in from meetings in Boston, wearing a sharp-looking sports jacket he'd bought at the…