By: Matthew Kayser
The author of a new memoir details his experience as an insider and as a cancer patient
Chris Goldsmith had already spent more than 15 years in executive healthcare roles, from CEO to COO, when he was diagnosed with stage 4 GIST, a rare cancer that affects 4,000 people annually in the United States. As someone who had experienced the system from the inside, he was well aware of the obstacles that many patients faced.
Before moving into healthcare leadership, Goldsmith built his career in commercial software and strategy consulting. That experience gave him a systems-oriented approach to solving complex organizational challenges, a perspective he later applied while serving in executive healthcare roles and, ultimately, while navigating his own cancer diagnosis.
The complexity, barriers to care, and inevitable patient navigation delays would contribute to a dual perspective that reveals just how critical the healthcare gap is and how patients experience it.
Now an author of a new memoir called GUTS: A Healthcare CEO’s Bold Battle Against Stage 4 Cancer — And Your Handbook for Healing, Goldsmith aims to share his personal story, as well as offer a practical guide for those navigating the Western medicine system.
A Diagnosis That Became a Turning Point
Three years ago, Goldsmith was diagnosed with GIST (Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor). This cancer, which typically occurs in the stomach and small intestine, often causes no symptoms initially. However, as the tumor grows, symptoms eventually evolve to include belly pain, fatigue, as well as nausea and vomiting.
As the disease progressed, he directly faced the prospect of dying three times, which reshaped not only how he viewed Western medicine but also the systems in place that help treat patients.
While GIST isn’t a common type of gastrointestinal cancer, it can be treated, especially if caught early. Unfortunately, some people don’t realize they have this type of cancer until it is too late.
“During my journey, I talked to a number of other people impacted by cancer, and in listening to the questions they asked, I realized there was a lot of knowledge that I took for granted about how the US healthcare system works,” Goldsmith shares.
Alongside this open conversation, Goldsmith has also founded a nonprofit called Fix the System or Die Trying. Through Fix the System or Die Trying, Goldsmith and his team aim to help reshape the way people receive medical care by beginning with the basis of what makes a community: stories.
The nonprofit encourages patients and families to share their healthcare experiences, with the long-term goal of using artificial intelligence to analyze those stories, identify recurring patterns, and translate them into practical healthcare business processes. Goldsmith hopes those insights can help healthcare organizations adopt more patient-centered approaches and improve how care is delivered.
It Takes GUTS to Talk
For Goldsmith, his book GUTS highlights not only the medical ways he navigated cancer, but also the concept of PEP (Prayers, Energy, Positivity) in shaping how he tackled it.
The book serves not only as a guide to navigating the diagnosis and treatment plan, but also highlights the importance of integrating alternative therapies and mechanisms to support someone during their recovery.
“In my journey to heal, I tried to take the best from Western Medicine and Eastern Medicine and combine them to help heal my body,” the author says. “Even upon achieving remission, I detail the struggle with a surprise fast-growing recurrence.”
As someone who understands the way the system works from both an inside and a patient perspective, Chris Goldsmith has made it his mission to reshape the narrative behind how people seek cancer treatment.
“I wrote this book to help other humans,” Goldsmith shares.
