The thing is, doctors will soon be a thing of the past anyway. The family GP/MD is likely to be replaced by an app very very soon indeed. And doctors have set themselves up for this by adhering to "best practice" which basically means standardisation. Since they no longer hold their own opinion, there is nothing they can do that an algorithm can't do better.
Thanks for pointing out the continuing education treadmill, which eats up the brains of health care professionals with pharma "approved" material. Maintaining various board certifications ties people down even more to the approved material, leaving them less time to explore alternatives and new thought. The high interest, student loans are further enslavement. Who can expect free thought and new ideas from a someone who's basically a slave?
Dr. Remmant, si todos los médicos pensaran como usted, sería maravilloso. Otra es la realidad, en alguna ocasión hablaba con un medico amigo y me decía que tenía muy pocos colegas amigos por que las charlas con ellos giraban en torno a temas como, el último modelo del carro de lujo, las propiedades de recreo, las vacaciones en el exterior y lo que cada uno ganaba.
Es triste decirlo pero la medicina y su ejercicio en muchos casos , se han alejado de los ideales éticos y se enmarcan en el utilitarismo individual. Doctor Remmant, felicitaciones, seguramente muy pocos médicos piensan como usted.
So far as I can tell, what’s really driving the focus on maximizing quantity over quality is the high - & ever increasing - proportion of MDs who now work for healthcare systems rather than themselves. I’ve been in academic med for almost 20 years & I’ve watched exactly the same process in 2 states: systems suck up as many community hospitals & private practices as they can, until they dominate the entire market & there are few (if any) opportunities for patients to find help outside these behemoths, who have strict triaging/referral policies and years long waiting lists for appts.
It’s not primarily about loans or unavoidable costs (eg. malpractice premiums), but about meeting the financial demands of bean counters & bureaucrats. Ironically, by giving up their autonomy & resigning their clinical autonomy to “standard of care” protocols, they are putting themselves out of business… & the “healthcare” employers who they work to please are rewarding them by replacing them with mid-levels who make (sometimes) a fraction of what they do.
And from the patient perspective… if all an MD is going to do is spend 10 mins figuring out which Rx they should add to their existing polypharmacy, why *would* they prefer an MD over a PA?
No wonder there’s both burn out and a growing chorus of disgruntled MDs complaining about midlevels being called “doctor” & the like.
It does seem painfully obvious to balance work, home and really want to gain new insights into chosen profession as you move through it with more experience and years. But, greed. Apathy. Lack of creativity or imagination.
Honestly, it’s appalling how often I know more about something than my doctor does. I had a doc tell me recently that my cholesterol was high and I should stop eating dairy and avoid shrimp. That’s 1990s information. No, I never went back.
Great article and so true! I went to nursing school for ONLY one year and saw enough in the medical field that made me want to leave immediately. I eventually found my path in nutrition and natural ways.....sooooo much better.
The thing is, doctors will soon be a thing of the past anyway. The family GP/MD is likely to be replaced by an app very very soon indeed. And doctors have set themselves up for this by adhering to "best practice" which basically means standardisation. Since they no longer hold their own opinion, there is nothing they can do that an algorithm can't do better.
Thanks for pointing out the continuing education treadmill, which eats up the brains of health care professionals with pharma "approved" material. Maintaining various board certifications ties people down even more to the approved material, leaving them less time to explore alternatives and new thought. The high interest, student loans are further enslavement. Who can expect free thought and new ideas from a someone who's basically a slave?
Dr. Remmant, si todos los médicos pensaran como usted, sería maravilloso. Otra es la realidad, en alguna ocasión hablaba con un medico amigo y me decía que tenía muy pocos colegas amigos por que las charlas con ellos giraban en torno a temas como, el último modelo del carro de lujo, las propiedades de recreo, las vacaciones en el exterior y lo que cada uno ganaba.
Es triste decirlo pero la medicina y su ejercicio en muchos casos , se han alejado de los ideales éticos y se enmarcan en el utilitarismo individual. Doctor Remmant, felicitaciones, seguramente muy pocos médicos piensan como usted.
So far as I can tell, what’s really driving the focus on maximizing quantity over quality is the high - & ever increasing - proportion of MDs who now work for healthcare systems rather than themselves. I’ve been in academic med for almost 20 years & I’ve watched exactly the same process in 2 states: systems suck up as many community hospitals & private practices as they can, until they dominate the entire market & there are few (if any) opportunities for patients to find help outside these behemoths, who have strict triaging/referral policies and years long waiting lists for appts.
It’s not primarily about loans or unavoidable costs (eg. malpractice premiums), but about meeting the financial demands of bean counters & bureaucrats. Ironically, by giving up their autonomy & resigning their clinical autonomy to “standard of care” protocols, they are putting themselves out of business… & the “healthcare” employers who they work to please are rewarding them by replacing them with mid-levels who make (sometimes) a fraction of what they do.
And from the patient perspective… if all an MD is going to do is spend 10 mins figuring out which Rx they should add to their existing polypharmacy, why *would* they prefer an MD over a PA?
No wonder there’s both burn out and a growing chorus of disgruntled MDs complaining about midlevels being called “doctor” & the like.
It does seem painfully obvious to balance work, home and really want to gain new insights into chosen profession as you move through it with more experience and years. But, greed. Apathy. Lack of creativity or imagination.
Honestly, it’s appalling how often I know more about something than my doctor does. I had a doc tell me recently that my cholesterol was high and I should stop eating dairy and avoid shrimp. That’s 1990s information. No, I never went back.
Great article and so true! I went to nursing school for ONLY one year and saw enough in the medical field that made me want to leave immediately. I eventually found my path in nutrition and natural ways.....sooooo much better.