(Snippets from the frontline)
Physician, heal thyself
Put it on the table; talk about it at meetings; stop ignoring the fact: Our profession has been taken over by business, and you are not the one making decisions for your patient.
How many years have we devoted learning to provide the latest medical information and treatment? We come out of residency ambitious and ready to use our newly minted skills, but are then told by business how to practice medicine.
Hospitals, with insurance and pharmaceutical companies, direct us in their way of managing patients. They manipulate our psyche that the medical profession has been wasteful and placed healthcare teetering on disaster. Unbeknownst to us has been their motivation for greed and profit, while our acts of benevolence and humanity are strewn by the wayside.
We can continue talking about “evidence-based” studies, learn about medication side-effects, and dwell on the hopes of a cancer cure. But in reality, our profession will be directed by businesspeople deciding which patient benefits from treatment.
Despite our vast knowledge and training, we will be asked to compromise morals and ethics at the convenience of those seeking to profit from patient desperation.
Physician, heal thyself.
Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D.
This is unfortunate. I agree with you that medicine is part of a business between pharmaceutical companies and health insurance. My husband and I read many magazines which provide hope for medical treatments, but we both know that the decision will be made by our insurance if we get sick. Too bad because a lot is found to treat people now.