Medicine needs its soul back

In a recent issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, Terwiesch and colleagues propose “reimagining provider visits as the new tertiary care.” Initially, their arguments seem sound, even reasonable. Then, they conclude with this: The conceptual change is to see every engagement with a clinician not as something to be celebrated but as a kind of failure — an inability to accommodate patient needs by any of the less expensive technology-enabled levels of support. In this vision, provider visits, including those of primary care practitioners, become the new tertiary care. With technology both facilitating and encroaching on our practices, should we now view the patient visit as a failure of the medical system? What’s missing from the authors’ new vision is the human factor in medicine, the personal relationship between doctor and patient that is the basis of medical care. The soul. Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Physician Hospital-Based Medicine Source Type: blogs