Physicians and Social Determinants of Health

To the Editor The Viewpoint by Dr Schwenk addressed the troubling issues with physician practice and the decline of the patient-physician relationship. However, his caution that physicians should not be responsible for attending to social determinants of health is shortsighted. Although I agree that physicians cannot be the sole arbiters responsible for social determinants of health, they can be vocal agents of change, particularly in an era of reduced funding for public programs and preventive measures, reductions that will assuredly limit access to underserved populations.
Source: JAMA - Category: General Medicine Source Type: research