At a time when health care feels more complex, costly and disconnected than ever, Healing the Sick Care System: Why People Matter (February 1st, 2026) arrives with a clear message: the system is not broken because it lacks innovation, talent or investment, but because it has lost sight of the people it exists to serve.
Written by Gil Bashe, chair global health & purpose at FINN Partners, this 240-page book challenges leaders across health, life sciences, technology and policy ecosystems to rethink how care is designed, delivered, and experienced.
Drawing on a career that spans battlefield medicine, health policy, patient advocacy, private equity, and global agency leadership, Bashe offers a rare, inside-out perspective on why well-intentioned systems increasingly fail patients and physicians alike.
John Whyte is MD, MPH, is CEO and executive vice president, American Medical Association.
Whyte said: ”In a time when medicine grows more complex by the day, this book powerfully reaffirms the physician’s role as a trusted partner in every person’s health journey.
“Gil Bashe reminds us that healing begins with listening, collaboration and compassion.
“His insights champion a system where health professionals and patients work side by side to achieve better outcomes and a better care experience.”
Bashe added: “This book is about remembering that health care is, at its core, a human endeavor.
“When people feel seen, heard, and supported, better outcomes follow.
“Healing the system begins when we restore trust, collaboration and a shared sense of responsibility for one another.”
The book’s foreword is written by Tom Lawry, formerly a senior Microsoft leader and the bestselling author of Hacking Health Care and Health Care Nation, as well as one of the most influential voices shaping modern thinking on the use of AI in health systems globally.
Lawry frames the book as arriving at a national inflection point, where burnout, chronic disease, cost and mistrust converge and argues that technology alone cannot repair a system that has lost its moral compass.
Peter Finn, founding partner of FINN Partners and chair of the Catskill Mountain Foundation, underscored why the book resonates far beyond health care.
He said: “Gil makes a compelling case that purpose and performance are not trade-offs—they are mutually reinforcing.
“This book challenges leaders to rethink how culture, trust, and human-centered decision-making drive sustainable growth, stronger organisations and long-term value.”
Throughout the book, Bashe rejects false choices: purpose versus performance, innovation versus empathy, markets versus humanity.
Instead, he shows how systems built around people perform better, scale faster and
Early readers from across the health, media, life sciences, and patient advocacy sectors have called the book urgent, clarifying and deeply human.
Patient advocate Matthew Zachary, Founder of Stupid Cancer, writes that the book “challenges leaders to stop hiding behind process and own the human consequences of the decisions they approve.”
From the innovation community, Bruno Cohen, Chair of the Galien Foundation, adds that the book “resonates with the mission of advancing breakthroughs that honor humanity as much as science.”
Healing the Sick Care System: Why People Matter, published by Thought Leader Press, will be available on Amazon in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle editions, with presales starting in January 2026.
An audiobook edition is slated for release in Spring 2026.
