4 ms·

Thanks for the comments; you bring up good points and I was probably being a bit expansive. When I was a medical student, I used to ask patients, just prior to

Thanks for the comments; you bring up good points and I was probably being a bit expansive. When I was a medical student, I used to ask patients, just prior to discharge, what their hospitalization was for, what their primary diagnosis was, what's the follow-up, etc. I was absolutely disheartened at how few people had any clue whatsoever (though some were due to poor communication on our part). But then again, as a patient it's a ton of work to really be on top of your care. I've tried tagging along with family members who were hospitalized and even I had to press to follow everything. I've never been hospitalized, so maybe I'm not able to understand the emotional impact of being in those huge, strange buildings on the other side of the white coats (which I refuse to wear anymore for a lot of reasons). I've been on prescription pain pills once, and quit after 2 days because they made me so sleepy; I preferred the pain. So I'm constantly struggled to really get inside the mindset of any patients who don't articulate their thoughts. Yikes, don't know where I'm going with this. I'd like things to change, but have no idea where to start.

eropple 14y ago
This could be a good conversation to have. I'd be interested in chatting with you in-depth. My email is in my profile.
Alex3917 14y ago
I mean about half the problems you could get rid of just by cleaning up all the corruption in pharma and the FDA. The two books I've read that both have some pretty good stats and recommendations on this are: The Truth About Drug Companies by Marcia Angell Overdosed America by John Abramson The problems are way too numerous to list, but they're extremely important. The second thing that needs to change is that we need more data about the state of health care, as well as unbiased research into drugs. The commonwealth fund makes the case that we actually do a decent job of improving at the things we measure, but for the vast majority of the healthcare system we have no idea how safe or effective it is. The third thing is that medicine needs to actually be regulated like any other industry. Doctors in this country are basically given a free pass for killing people, and that needs to change. And lastly, as you say, our education system needs to be fixed. It doesn't work to have a society where only 3% of Americans can actually read at the level that college graduates are supposed to be able to read at. Oh, and all of this needs to be done by the government, or by a combination of government and NGOs. Having private companies do healthcare is a disaster.

eropple 14y ago

This could be a good conversation to have. I'd be interested in chatting with you in-depth. My email is in my profile.

Alex3917 14y ago

I mean about half the problems you could get rid of just by cleaning up all the corruption in pharma and the FDA. The two books I've read that both have some pretty good stats and recommendations on this are: The Truth About Drug Companies by Marcia Angell Overdosed America by John Abramson The problems are way too numerous to list, but they're extremely important. The second thing that needs to change is that we need more data about the state of health care, as well as unbiased research into drugs. The commonwealth fund makes the case that we actually do a decent job of improving at the things we measure, but for the vast majority of the healthcare system we have no idea how safe or effective it is. The third thing is that medicine needs to actually be regulated like any other industry. Doctors in this country are basically given a free pass for killing people, and that needs to change. And lastly, as you say, our education system needs to be fixed. It doesn't work to have a society where only 3% of Americans can actually read at the level that college graduates are supposed to be able to read at. Oh, and all of this needs to be done by the government, or by a combination of government and NGOs. Having private companies do healthcare is a disaster.