mythical & Modern Medicine (cntnd) 4/16/2021 6:18:44 AM
Not long ago patients sent birthday cards to their doctors or brought a present for the office personnel during 'holidays'. Doctors sent cards of condolences when a patient died or even attended the funeral ceremony. They talked briefly about the patient's vacation, family or personal well being or some other topic during visits. Doctors apologized if things were running late. Secretaries addressed patients as Mr. or Mrs. Doctors deferred , reduced or sometimes waived patient's payments according to their circumstances. Doctors felt comfortable treating patients and the patients knew that the doctor was doing her best for him. This is not imagined Utopia but actually happened. The human connection had sympathy, feeling, responsibility, faith, honesty, trust and other human attributes.
Now a patient visit is a transaction, service sold at a price, infused with indifference, doubt, mechanized and lack of trust. There is no or very little personal interaction or bond or sympathy. This is what your problem is, these are the options, this is my recommendation given matter-of-factly. You decide. Next patient.
This has resulted in a human interaction devoid of humanity. A patient is just a problem e.g. gallbladder, but also a potentially an adversary who can sue you if things go wrong. This results in 'defensive medicine' which involves ordering tests to cover 'all bases' should the patient sue, increasing the cost of medicine by a lot. According to what's in the media and what the liability lawyers advertise on TV every illness and treatment should have a perfect outcome, if not someone is to blame and the bad result has to be compensated. It's nothing personal! The hospital and the doctor have insurance. it is true in a fraction of the patient -doctor equation, but by and large it is generated by the dehumanization and monetizing of a human event. How can a million dollars relieve pain or suffering or death? Since when has it become the norm that human actions are perfect each time?
Another 'advancement' has been the change in and of nomenclature without any rhyme or reason. Hospitals are not hospitals but medical centers. A physician is now a care-giver or provider. A patient is now a client in Psychiatric practices. Patients don't talk- they verbalize. A complication is an adverse event. As if changing terminology is advancement for the better. Has calling jails correctional facility made criminals come out after release model citizens? Has this prevented them running criminal and drug enterprises from some jails? How about police? Now called law enforcement officers.
My plea is that dehumanizing medicine has ruined it causing problems which have escalated and are headed toward chaos and unhappiness. Human health can never be successfully commercialized. Human to human interaction, specially in illness, requires a human touch and humane-ness which no amount of commercialization can replace. Humane medicine is not Mythical medicine . It is the right and irreplaceable medicine. Medicine which heals body and mind and nourishes the soul.
So what is the answer? We can not go back to the Mythical medicine. But we can and should stop dehumanizing it. Just as eating at home is not the same as going to your favorite restaurant, remote learning not the same as contact with peers and teacher. Just as gambling on-line is not the same as the live hustle bustle and boisterous noise of a casino. Just as watching sports alone at home is not the same as enjoying it live. A virtual visit is not the same as 'of laying of the hands' of a live visit. There can be a thousand reasons to justify those things but it is not the same and never will be till humans are humans and not completely de-humanized. Which is what is happening steadily.
My plea is that we can still reverse this trend and find ways to retain human and humane medicine. It will require rethinking of this pell-mell and headlong leap into technology and commercialization at all levels. Just as love cannot be bought, health and humane-ness cannot be bought. It is there in every human being and has to be nurtured and nourished. It should start in childhood where seeds of compassion, co-existence, kindness, co-operation are sown to be reaped later as being as perfect a human being as p0ssible- specially in relation to medicine. I believe it can and should be done.
