Consideration of the forgoing will lead you to realize that the practice of medicine is predominantly a humanistic act. Physicians must care about their patients, and they must constantly improve their scientific knowledge about disease. To care and not know is dangerous. To know and not care is even worse. Caring and knowing must be combined to succeed in doctoring.
— J. Willis Hurst, MD1
The thin thread that holds our existence in this life is broken every time we become sick. We seek medical care to restore our homeostasis through remedies and drugs provided by medical healers. Nonetheless, there is an untold and intense connection between the patient and the clinician that has been traditionally upheld as the key element of the therapeutic patient–physician relationship. In fact, more than the remedies, as patients, we expect to be listened to and cared for by compassionate and competent physicians. A listening and caring physician may turn out to be a more effective healer than the most scientifically updated physician who has little empathy. However, the major threat to this sacred connection between the provider and the patient is the growing practice of the business of medicine where care is sacrificed to see a greater number of “clients,” and thus increased billing.
The practice of clinical medicine is rapidly transforming with the current worldwide economic crisis. Although no one denies the importance of running a practice in a fiscally responsible way, the core ideals behind “physicianhood” and its mission also seem to be faltering.
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— Carlos Franco-Paredes, MD, MPH, Phyllis Kozarsky, MD
This article was originally published in the December 2009 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
