Former Neurosurgeon Breaks His Silence on the Hidden Forces Reshaping Modern Medicine

What happens when a doctor who dedicated his life to healing realizes the system no longer allows him to truly care for his patients?

In “Preparing to Tack: When Physicians Change Careers,” Dr. Jack Kushner delivers a powerful and unflinching account of a lifetime in medicine, and the difficult decision to walk away from it. Inspired as a child by a defining encounter with life and death, Kushner entered medicine believing in the sacred bond between physician and patient.

For decades, he honored that calling as a neurosurgeon, sacrificing time, comfort, and personal freedom in service of others.

But medicine changed.

As insurance companies, government agencies, and regulatory bodies tightened their grip, clinical judgment increasingly gave way to administrative mandates. Paperwork overshadowed patients. Policies replaced intuition. The physician’s role shifted from independent healer to managed provider often forced to choose between compliance and conscience. “Preparing to Tack” is both memoir and warning. With honesty and clarity, Dr. Kushner examines the pressures that ultimately led him to leave neurosurgery after twenty-five years of practice. His story exposes the emotional toll these changes take on physicians and raises urgent questions about the future of healthcare itself. This book speaks not only to doctors, but to anyone who depends on the medical system and believes care should always come before bureaucracy.

About the Book
“Preparing to Tack: When Physicians Change Careers” explores the evolution of modern healthcare through the eyes of a seasoned neurosurgeon who lived it. From youthful idealism to professional disillusionment, the book traces how shifting power structures transformed medicine into an industry increasingly driven by control, liability, and profit.

Dr. Kushner’s journey offers insight, reflection, and a sobering look at why more physicians are questioning their place in today’s healthcare system, and what that means for patients.

About the Author
Dr. Jack Kushner was a member of the Tulane University Alumni Board of Directors, a member of the Tulane Associates Board of Directors, and a consultant to the Tulane University Medical School Dean, Dr. Benjamin Sachs. He is a graduate of the Tulane University, the University of Alabama Medical School and did his surgical internship at George Washington University Medical School, a surgical Residency at the University of Michigan Medical School, and a Neurosurgical Residency at the Wake Forest Medical School. He served in the U.S. Army as a combat surgeon in Viet-Nam for which he was awarded the Bronze Star. He has been honored at Sheffield University in England, which he attended for one year, and honored at Cambridge University and Oxford University. He practiced Neurosurgery in Annapolis, Maryland for almost 25 years.

Dr. Jack Kushner was not a fly by night doctor who decided to change and leave medicine, but someone who successfully had devoted a lifetime developing. He was a Board Certified in Neurosurgery by the American Board of Neurosurgery, Fellow of American College of Surgery, Fellow American Association of Neurosurgery, Fellow of International College of Surgeons, Member of Southern Neurosurgical Society, Instructor of Neurosurgery Johns Hopkins University, Clinical Assistant Professor Neurosurgery George Washington University, Honorary Professor of Surgery at Cambridge, Honorary Director General World Forum at Oxford, Master’s Degree University of Maryland General Administration in Finance, Fellow in Tropical Medicine at Louisiana State University, Researcher at Gorgas Laboratory In Tropical Medicine in Panama, Board of Trustees Anne Arundel Hospital in Annapolis, Maryland, Committee of Emerging Technology College of American Surgeons.

Dr. Kushner has authored and presented numerous medical journal articles. He has also served on several medical editorial boards.

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