In a recent address to the annual meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges, President Darrell G. Kirch, MD spoke of the “undercurrent of deeply conflicted feelings about our lives in academic medicine.” Dr. Kirch’s sense of depression among academic physicians also is felt beyond academia. Many practicing doctors have expressed negative thoughts about the profession as it is practiced today in the US. Indeed, it is not uncommon for currently active physicians to admit that they would not recommend medicine as a career for their offspring. What is the source of this sense of depression and dissatisfaction within both academic and community medicine? I have given this question a great deal of thought in recent weeks, and I believe that its origin can be traced to multiple factors at work in our country, in our health care system, and in the world.
The first of these factors is the current political state of our country and the world at large. The poor perception of our current President and our elected representatives in Congress is unprecedented. Their inadequate leadership has, in my opinion, reduced the natural optimism of American citizens, including physicians. The war in Iraq, the frightening prospects of global warming, inequities and failings in our health care system, the impending bankruptcy of the Medicare program, the threat of international fundamentalist terrorism, and the uncertain future of the US economy are just some of the more obvious factors leading to this depressed and uneasy state of mind.
As active participants in our country, academic and community physicians cannot help but “feel the pain” of our society at this time.
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— Joseph S. Alpert, MD
This article was originally published in the August 2008 issue of the American Journal of Medicine.
