Medicine today

[UICpremed]

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I really don't know if this thread belongs in this section. But I am gonna post it anyway, mods feel free to move.

ok, does anybody else feel that medicine today focuses a lot on symptom relief rather than going to the actual source of the problem? Most Drs. just address the pain or superficial things... but not the source. The focus on prevention is almost non existential.

Do any of you agree? What are your thoughts? Do you hope to be a different kind of doctor?

 

[SuzieQ3417]

We talked about this a lot in the health policy class I took last semeter. Not only are we not set up to practice preventative medicine, but we also do not do a good job at monitoring chronic conditions (the two sort of go hand in hand I guess). I think part of the problem is that doctors only have a little time to spend with each patient, hence it is easier to write a prescription rather than spend 10 minutes sitting down and asking the right questions to get to the actual cause of the problem.
I know in New York there were some hospitals that tried to set up clinics to monitor and prevent problems in diabetes patients, but went out of business several years later. The reason? Insurance reimbursement - it was easier to get paid to amputate the foot of a diabetic rather than to prevent foot problems before they got out of control. Now isn't that sick and crazy?

 

[Shredder]

easier to get paid to amputate the foot of a diabetic rather than to prevent foot problems before they got out of control. Now isn't that sick and crazy?

seconded--its depraved, but its just perverse incentives. its financially smarter for docs not to prevent sickness--its their livelihood. for society as a whole it takes a toll but why should the medical establishment care about that. govt intervention time? much like pollution

the wealthy and sly doc will be the one who can convince patients to return time and again instead of doing a solid fixup job or prevention. a la sleazy car mechanics. just an analogy. mechanics would never advocate buying foreign cars, similar situation.

what if we start paying docs some arbitrary amount and penalize them for each patient they see? just throwing this out there. i suppose prohibit referrals or something--or give them to your enemies haha. anyway incentives are everything