Who doesn’t love a good wine and cheese pairing? Well, lets be honest. Who doesn’t LOVE wine and cheese respective of one another. Put them together in the right way, and it enhances the experience of each in new and wonderful ways. This too can be said about the physician and PA pairing. Each have unique characteristics that make them special. Both can age beautifully together. Both can be unexpected compliments to one another. I look at the relationships we have with one another in the health care setting and I think about how we can elevate each other when we take the time to pay attention to the nuances -to the pairings. Particularly, the doctor and physician assistant pairing comes to mind as it represents a partnership that demands long hours together and a strong foundation of trust.
When hiring or interviewing for a role in this dynamic duo, its not enough just to choose the most qualified person for the workload, but equally if not more important to hire the right fit for you. This will work in favor of creating a longstanding and fruitful team approach. So how does wine and cheese fit into this discussion? Let’s begin this creative exercise with a little science that looks at the dynamic experience between wine and cheese and how it changes over the course of time and taste.
Food scientist, Mara Galmarini, published a study in the Journal of Food Science demonstrating the impact of cheese on 31 participants’ experiences of the wine. They began with a selection of four types of wine: a sweet white Pacharenc, a dry white Sancerre, a spicy red Bourgogne and a subtler red Madiran. The cheeses were a semi-hard Comté, a hard Crottin de Chavignol, a creamy Epoisses and a semi-soft Roquefort. Participants sampled the menu over the course of five one-hour tasting sessions, held on separate days. (Sounds delightful) In the first session, participants sampled the wine alone. The red wines were served at a temperature of 64º F (18º C) and the whites at 50º F (10º C). The subjects were instructed to take a sip, hold it in their mouths and click a screen that presented them with 11 different flavor characteristics, including sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, herby and yellow fruit. They could click as many of them as they wanted as the dominant flavor changed and could swallow whenever they chose. Immediately afterward, another screen appeared that allowed them to rate the wine on a scale from “I did not like it at all” to “I liked it very much.” Each wine was tasted and rated three times. Tough job but someone had to do it! Using only 1 oz. pours of wine, subjects had plenty for the experiment but too little for a buzz. In the following sessions, the cheese was incorporated into the tasting protocol and was served in equally small and precise portions. Each of the four cheeses was sampled before and after sips of each of the four wines, which meant 16 different wine-cheese combinations. The wines were rated in the same way as in the first experiment. Overall, researchers found, each cheese influenced the dominant taste of each wine in different ways consistently across the 31 volunteers. For example, there were more detectable citrus notes in the Sancerre, after the Epoisses cheese. Roquefort increased the dominance of the red fruit notes in the Bourgogne and decreased the astringency—probably because the fat in the cheese coats the mouth, reducing tannin-induced drying. The red Madiran was the most cheese-sensitive of all, with the wine’s aromatic qualities increasing and its sour notes decreasing after any of the four cheeses.
Across the entire experiment, the effect of the cheese was cumulative. Rather than the wine palate becoming overwhelmed by a mix of cheese flavors, it actually seemed to become more sensitive—good news for those who like to serve their best wines for last!
So what can we glean from this experiment and translate into our own understanding about the pairing of physicians and PAs’?
Many of our experiences are influenced by our relationships. Some of our best characteristics can be enhanced when paired with others who compliments us. On the flip side, people may also bring out those less desirable qualities as well. Choosing a partner, a PA , practice manager or an employee is an incredibly important in the success of a team and workplace. Hiring the right talent that increases the diversity, compliments the teams and blends well is only going to enhance, but often multiply your impact. Just like the experiment above, wine and cheese, when paired well, created an enhancement of the positive notes and influenced characteristics of each. So how do you know what PA and MD blend together? Let’s talk. Tools like the DISC assessment are like having tasting notes for you . The DISC and associated tools can create job benchmarking and reveal style and behavioral characteristics for your potential hires and current team members. Most importantly, if you don't recognize your own "tasting notes", palate and style then how can you choose a best pairing. Lets get together over wine and cheese and talk more about how you hire and surround yourself with others whom want to lead in medicine.
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