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Healthcare
At
present, our healthcare system is in crisis. Although there has been an enormous
struggle to discover a solution, answers have not been found, largely
because people have been looking in the wrong places.
PPO's, socialized medicine, rationing treatment, or legalistic
approaches have not worked because they have not addressed the
fundamental obstacle.
We have gone
in circles with these kinds of proposals and made virtually no
progress.
Once the root cause
of the current medical system's ineffectiveness is thoroughly examined,
the outlook for the future becomes much more favorable.
If we reconsidered
the antiquated educational requirements currently needed to practice
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medicine in
America, we
could have a plentiful supply of creative, compassionate, and reasonably
priced physicians. The
real issue is not money, but rather our mindset.
At present, our
society seems to be in a period of stagnation. And some aspects of our
society are not only failing to progress, but actually digressing. It
is only appropriate for us to question some of the fundamental
assumptions upon which our current systems are organized and operated.
We tend to
hold to certain beliefs very rigidly, and dismiss new ideas that
contradict them impulsively.
Most pre-medical education is not relevant to a
person's ability to become a talented doctor, or a more whole and
effective human being, for that matter. The M.D. degree requires
twelve years of higher institutional education, which constitutes an
enormous price to pay in time, energy, and money. In many schools,
education simply consists of memorizing, passing a test, and then
forgetting whatever was learned. The pressures encountered by medical
students are mentally damaging, and waste many valuable years. By the
time the doctor graduates, he has forgotten most of what he has
learned.
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The quality of healthcare can be vastly improved if
we replaced the current structure with a system that focuses on live
patients and allows ample time for students to devise creative solutions
to health problems by using internet information resources, technical
support, and a worldwide communication network.
Patient Centered Learning
Simply
put, the solution is to permit alternatives to rigid institutions,
utilize free internet programs, and have medical students learn about
medicine by assisting practicing physicians in taking patient
histories.
These students
would offer valuable, free services to doctors, while at the same time
benefiting from a vivid learning experience that results from spending
several hours each day |
interacting with
actual patients. This seems a far better option than mandating study at
an extremely expensive four-year medical school.
According to a recent survey, for every dollar that a
medical student pays, there are four dollars that come from other
funding sources. Most people don't realize that 90% or more of the M.D.
faculty members are volunteers: they aren't paid. This is an incredible
notion to contemplate. The real heart - the essence - of medical school
is provided free of charge. It is the institution itself - the rigidity
and the bureaucracy - that is so expensive.
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