We need to induce doctors to practice preventive, not just reactive, care!\u00a0 is a favored nostrum in the current health care debate.\u00a0 I\u2019ve yet to hear an example of what this means.\u00a0 Prevention lies overwhelmingly within the realm of individual behavior, but our modern reflex of transferring agency from favored victim groups\u2014in this case, millions of artery-clogged, waddling Americans\u2014onto less-favored entities guarantees that we see the problems of Fat America as the failure of doctors to practice the right kind of medicine.\u00a0 Perhaps more doctors could counsel their patients to exercise and avoid over-eating, but my guess is that if they stay silent on these topics, it is from hard-won experience regarding the futility of such suggestions.\u00a0\u00a0 As for other types of \u201cpreventive medicine,\u201d it has been said repeatedly that doctors run too many diagnostic tests out of pecuniary motives (or, alternatively, as lawsuit protection), but such tests presumably have some preventive uses.\u00a0 Where medicine truly has\u00a0preventive power, as in inoculations against polio and other once epidemic diseases, it has been marvelously effective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We need to induce doctors to practice preventive, not just reactive, care!\u00a0 is a favored nostrum in the current health care debate.\u00a0 I\u2019ve yet to hear an example of what this means.\u00a0 Prevention lies overwhelmingly within the realm of individual … Continue reading