Opinion
Practice guidelines a good antidote to forces of self-interest in medicine
LETTER — Posted July 19, 2004
Regarding "Better ways to address self-referral than impugning integrity of physicians" (Letters, July 5):
I agree with the published letter regarding self-referral that suggests practice guidelines as a means to control the natural human desire to promote one's own interests.
Physicians would do well to admit that no one and no group can promise to ignore their own interests for the benefit of society. Our society is based on economic principles of every person pursuing his or her own interests, and the social benefit that comes from this. The professional altruism of doctors is usually extended to the patient before them, but as most patients see little of the costs of medical care, this is no protection against overuse of expensive technology.
Let's come clean. The medical profession can't change basic economics or human behavior. At the macro level, what is well-funded gets done. What is not, rots.
The public needs to find effective ways to align their own interests with the interests of the decision-makers in health care if good value is to be restored. Those of us with an interest in medicine as a service and a profession need to help it happen, lest we slide further into the abyss of rising costs sans value.
Bruce E. Robinson MD, MPH, Sarasota, Fla.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/07/19/edlt0719.htm.
