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A medical center is not a hospital: More letters
Let's not retreat
To the Editor: It would be rare to find a physician who has witnessed the changes in the last several decades of medicine who does not share many of the sentiments and observations of Dr. Lansdale. The key to a solution lies in examining a very telling phrase of Dr. Lansdale: “retreating to the privacy of clinical medicine.”
We are living in an era of unprecedented opportunity for physicians to lead us to new levels of care by combining molecular and population levels of understanding of disease and health that will greatly dwarf the many public health victories of the mid-20th century. We need the deep and careful clinical descriptions of individual patients to inform genetic and molecular understanding. But we also need every practicing physician linked to wider improvement of both rare and common diseases through research registries and through practice-level and population strategies. We need various specialties to link efforts around patients rather than to retreat into their own intellectual and economic silos. We need to reclaim leadership stature by putting ourselves in service of solving the heath care crisis rather than retreating to the privacy of clinical medicine…
…The problem is that as the focus of medical care and medical education naturally and inevitably widened beyond the hospital, we have not developed the infrastructures to support this broadened approach. One of the fundamental ingredients to begin building this infrastructure is the community orientation of physicians. Let us not lament the great community spirit of the training hospital environment of old. Instead, let us translate it to the larger medical community beyond the confines of the hospital.
Let's not retreat
To the Editor: It would be rare to find a physician who has witnessed the changes in the last several decades of medicine who does not share many of the sentiments and observations of Dr. Lansdale. The key to a solution lies in examining a very telling phrase of Dr. Lansdale: “retreating to the privacy of clinical medicine.”
We are living in an era of unprecedented opportunity for physicians to lead us to new levels of care by combining molecular and population levels of understanding of disease and health that will greatly dwarf the many public health victories of the mid-20th century. We need the deep and careful clinical descriptions of individual patients to inform genetic and molecular understanding. But we also need every practicing physician linked to wider improvement of both rare and common diseases through research registries and through practice-level and population strategies. We need various specialties to link efforts around patients rather than to retreat into their own intellectual and economic silos. We need to reclaim leadership stature by putting ourselves in service of solving the heath care crisis rather than retreating to the privacy of clinical medicine…
…The problem is that as the focus of medical care and medical education naturally and inevitably widened beyond the hospital, we have not developed the infrastructures to support this broadened approach. One of the fundamental ingredients to begin building this infrastructure is the community orientation of physicians. Let us not lament the great community spirit of the training hospital environment of old. Instead, let us translate it to the larger medical community beyond the confines of the hospital.
Let's not retreat
To the Editor: It would be rare to find a physician who has witnessed the changes in the last several decades of medicine who does not share many of the sentiments and observations of Dr. Lansdale. The key to a solution lies in examining a very telling phrase of Dr. Lansdale: “retreating to the privacy of clinical medicine.”
We are living in an era of unprecedented opportunity for physicians to lead us to new levels of care by combining molecular and population levels of understanding of disease and health that will greatly dwarf the many public health victories of the mid-20th century. We need the deep and careful clinical descriptions of individual patients to inform genetic and molecular understanding. But we also need every practicing physician linked to wider improvement of both rare and common diseases through research registries and through practice-level and population strategies. We need various specialties to link efforts around patients rather than to retreat into their own intellectual and economic silos. We need to reclaim leadership stature by putting ourselves in service of solving the heath care crisis rather than retreating to the privacy of clinical medicine…
…The problem is that as the focus of medical care and medical education naturally and inevitably widened beyond the hospital, we have not developed the infrastructures to support this broadened approach. One of the fundamental ingredients to begin building this infrastructure is the community orientation of physicians. Let us not lament the great community spirit of the training hospital environment of old. Instead, let us translate it to the larger medical community beyond the confines of the hospital.