The article on the front page of October 22 “Chronic diseases kill us too soonwas unfortunately consistent with my observations as a practicing primary care physician. America’s healthcare system is heading in the wrong direction. The more people are treated only by specialists, the more we move away from the patient as a whole.
A holistic approach is the only way to improve health. Americans need the opportunity to have a health care facility staffed by primary care providers who examine them more thoroughly and encourage approaches to health and healing that go beyond pills and medications. procedures.
In an ideal world, primary care and specialists would support patients with medicine that understands the whole patient. In this world, payment systems would incentivize providers and allow them time to explore all questions and needs of patients, thereby avoiding risks and promoting health to save lives and money.
The writer, a family physician, is president of the Healing Works Foundation and former director of the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. He also led the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Traditional Medicine.
