Ernie,
I think a transition to your spaceflight-model for medicine is already in
progress in the health vs. pathology realm of medicine. Patients come into
their doctors' offices every day armed with their own Internet-based
research. The doctor-as-counselor helps the patient sort the options based
on expert training, to provide additional information, and then to encourage
them to stop smoking, lose weight, etc.
Some patients will succeed, others will fail. Here is the hitch, doctors
who help their patients succeed will not be rewarded for success because
that patient will not be coming back to the doctor for needed procedures.
Why? Because that patient will be healthy. The current system rewards
failure because failure results in more procedures and office visits.
The medical home model is designed to better compensate primary care
physicians for success. I hope it works, but I am skeptical about it
working enough to adequately balance things.
Chris
------------------------------------------
Christopher P. Hahn, Ph.D.
Constructive Agreement, LLC
<mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]
P.O. Box 39, Bozeman, MT 59771
(406) 522-4143 (406) 556-7116 fax
------------------------------------------
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dr. Ernie Prabhakar
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2012 6:36 AM
To: [email protected]
Cc: <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [RC] Washington Stuck Fighting Wrong Health-Care Battle -
Bloomberg
Hi Chris,
Sent from my iPhone
On Apr 18, 2012, at 20:32, "Chris Hahn" <[email protected]> wrote:
What we can hope for is a relative shift in compensation for family practice
doctors. Lip service has been paid to this, but I am skeptical.
I don't buy it. The pay disparity is merely a symptom of the anachronism of
the medical system as a curator of scarce knowledge.
If we were designing a medical system for, say, a 40-year spaceflight, we
would totally rely on information technology to do the heavy lifting of data
management and rote procedures. People would become counsellors,
researchers, or technicians. Perhaps all three, but as stewards of a
data-centric process focused on managing health (not disease) -- much like
positive psychology.
I don't know how we will get there, but we will start destroying the present
sometime this decade....
E
Connie's group is now a "medical home" provider. Supposedly, that his a
good thing.
Chris
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Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community
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Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
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Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community
<[email protected]>
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism
Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
