Meet Sam Bierstock MD | Dr. Sam

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sam Bierstock MD and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sam, do you have any habits that you feel contribute to your effectiveness?
I don’t know if it would qualify as a “habit,” but my mind is constantly rolling, thinking of different ways to approach issues or projects. Once I fixate on an idea, I become consumed by it and dive in. For example, that’s literally how Dr, Sam & The Managed Care Blues Band came into being. I had an idea on the way back from an airport while trying to figure out how to connect medicine and music and that was it. I had an emotional interaction with a WWII veteran, and my hit song “Before You Go” was literally on paper in 20 minutes the following morning after I had composed it in sleepless intervals during the night. The idea for instruments made out of bedpans came during a concert where an 80-year-old blues performer was playing a guitar made out of a gasoline can. Within 2 months I had built the first guitar and over the next year had built 11 beautiful and fully functional instruments.

Most recently I published my fourth book, “Full Circle,” which is loosely based on my experiences in my rather wild and crazily eclectic career. It’s running 98% 5 star ratings on platforms like Amazon and Barnes & Noble and others, so I guess people are enjoying it.

I suppose then that I have a habit of becoming consumed by particular ideas and running with them.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I have been enormously fortunate to have had successful careers in very diverse industries – healthcare and music and entertainment. The two careers overlapped and progressed in a parallel course and at various times one dominated the other and became full time.

I left my practice as an eye surgeon when I was in my early forties. I also had a degree in electrical engineering, and had been the first physician in my community to use a computer in my office in the 1980’s. I was on the ground floor as electronic records moved from billing and accounting systems to include medical records, so after helping many of my physician associates computerize their practices, I moved into the corporate world and had a series of executive positions with the large companies in that arena, eventually ending up as Chief Medical Officer of IBM’s division dealing with medical business development. Before long I started my own consulting business called Champions in Healthcare which provided consulting services for young companies developing innovative technologies for healthcare.

As a semi-professional blues harmonica player for much of my teen and adult life, I had continued to play with local bands during my medical career. I had a lot of time on my hands when I left practice and felt that what I really wanted was a career in music – but I had no idea of how to combine my medical background with music – let alone how to make a living doing it. This was in the mid-1990’s when managed care was being forced on the public and on doctors and almost everyone was miserable with it – except the insurance companies who benefited financially by providing less service while collecting premiums. I had a genuine concern that the profits of the insurance industry were taking precedence over the quality of care being delivered. That’s when I got the idea to create the character of “Dr. Sam” with his band, “The Managed Care Blues Band” – an idea that came to me at just the right time and with just the right hook. “Dr. Sam” was a profit-seeking physician who wanted to make a fortune and “manage” the music industry the same way that insurance companies managed healthcare. He was proposing that you would pay Dr. Sam a monthly premium, and that he would then decide what music, and how much music you got to listen to, whether you liked it or not. If you didn’t like it, you could listen to other music at your own expense. The lower his costs for the music provided, the better. He did everything he could not to spend money on rehearsing or any music delivered, did not want to play for anyone, and didn’t care if mistakes were made in the music performed. As a physician, he was not about to do any singing if he could get someone else to do it for less money. It was billed as “The World’s Most Reluctant Band.” Once the media got hold of it, it became a wild ride for quite a few years.

When I was interviewed on NPR by David Brancaccio, David kept asking me to play my harmonica and I steadfastly refused, telling him that I had no idea of how many of his listeners had paid their premiums to my music maintenance organization and I was not going to play for them if they hadn’t. David played right into it and the interview as a huge success. The Managed Care blues Band became a full-time career in music and entertainment, resulting in my touring the U.S. with my band and as an entertainer and featured speaker., appearing and being featured in both print and broadcast media nationally. I had songs like “You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me Blue Shield” and “Sorry Man but Your Bypass is Considered Cosmetic.”

The most remarkable change came in the early morning hours when I was leaving the Palm Beach Airport parking lot at 1 AM returning from an engagement with the band in California. There was an elderly man collecting the parking toll, and I said, “Have a nice evening,” as I paid. As I started to drive off he said, “I took two bullets for this country and look what I am doing.” I stopped, backed my car up and said, “Sir, I have had a wonderful life in this country. Thank you for what you did.” When I said that he started to cry.

That was the sleepless night when I wrote the lyrics to “Before You Go” in tribute to our WWII veterans. When I finally posted it on the internet, withing 2 months it was being played as often as 50,000 times a day. It eventually went world-wide. I consider it the greatest honor of my career to have been able to thank millions and millions of WWI veterans for saving our way of life. We would have nothing without their service and sacrifice. Almost all of them are gone now, but the song is still being played at www.beforeyougo.us. My co-author, John Melnick, who wrote the music to my lyrics, and I were awarded the George Washington Medal from the Freedom Foundation for “Before You Go.”

I served for 10 years on the board of Directors of Vets Helping Heroes, a 501(c)3 organization that provides service dogs to injured and disabled veterans, and continue to have varied diverse hobbies and activities which typically, I dive into fully. I’m a professional ski instructor, and have been a pilot of powered and fixed-wing glider aircraft. I enjoy scuba diving, motorcycles, horseback riding, have a sailboat and I’m certified by the American Sailing Association.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The Naughty Dawg Restaurant in Lighthouse Point is one of our favorites. The many nature preserves in the area are also places that we regularly take our visitors, as well as on airboat rides in the Everglades.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Local professional musicians who taught me so much about an industry that I entered later in life with little experience: John Catalano (guitar and bass, vocals) produced many of my recordings; Joe Moss (drums and piano and vocals) has been an enormous influence with his incredible knowledge of music and performance skills, Peter White ( bass guitar and vocals) was a dependable, constantly supportive band member, talented player and singer; and John Melnick (keyboard and vocals) who wrote the music to “Before You Go” after I struggled to put my lyrics to music for many months.

Website: https://sambierstock.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sambierstock/

Youtube: See below

Other: https://sambierstock.com links to my other websites including music and videos, and veterans tribute song “Before You Go” Many parody videos on youtube including: Might As Well Facemask – We’re Addicted to Gloves https://youtu.be/ZZ87KOmBXtI I Walk Guidelines https://youtu.be/-N8PRi9IOiI and Instruments of the Bedpandemic Band https://youtu.be/0kGiLHuVs9k My book “Full Circle” currently rated 96% 5 Star on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Full-Circle-Sam-Bierstock/dp/1958890448