More Health for the Care, continued

Public support of research in biomedical sciences and expansion of medical care comes with high expectations that frequently bear no relation to the nature and status of those endeavors. The public is interested in cures and they are conditioned to expect what they want to be true, which is misunderstood and overstated. If the current utilization and costs of medical care are justified, we are a sick population indeed. Should that be the case, the sustained growth in medical care speaks to the limited ability for it to cure or prevent illness and disease. Or, perhaps the fear of sickness overwhelms trust in the pursuit of good health. If so, it would be a conditioned response.

The hope for cures fuels the growth of medical care. But the hope for cures has given way to long-term maintenance therapy yielding chronic health problems with the possibility of discovering a cure in the future. Chronic diseases are generalized throughout the body but often manifest around an organ system. Practitioners have concentrated upon organ systems in order to increase their level of expertise. Application of specialty expertise for diagnosis and treatment involves technology that can be documented as applied. Regardless of whether there is benefit, the documentation assures payment. That is the basis for a medical care industry which has overwhelmed the personal interaction at the core of medical practice and usurped consideration of life styles as the primary pathway to optimum health.

More Health for the Care, continued

I come to praise medical care, not to defend it. The praise is justified for providing relief of pain and suffering, for saving lives of the injured, for rehabilitation of the sick and disabled, for amelioration of chronic disease processes, for participating in the increase of life expectancy and for expanding the boundaries of knowledge for the biomedical sciences. But there is no defense against expectations and demands for results beyond the current capabilities of medical care. Nor is there a rationale for failing to learn and live the life styles that shape and support the pathways to good health.