Sometimes the biggest barriers to a patients’ health are the very doctors they seek out for treatment. Time Magazine ran an interesting article in the March 26 issue entitled “Where Doctors Go Wrong,” based on the book by Harvard hematologist Jerome Groopman, “How Doctors Think.”
In reading the article, I was again reminded of the fact that only person looking after your health is you. If you rely on your physician to take care of you, there’s a good chance he/she will miss something (for the reasons presented in this article).
Consumerism is slowly changing the face of healthcare. I say slowly, because I remember having conversations about the growing role of consumerism back in 1997. However, reflecting back on the last decade, I can say that consumerism has already altered the landscape and will continue to do so in the future. As cost containment efforts continue, however, there will undoubtedly be more conflicts between managing costs at a population level and the individuals need for the best care possible.
