Center for Systems Analysis and Synthesis to Create Holistic Solutions

Reform Medical Education

Today, medical professionals need extensive knowledge in many areas, including Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) interventions, which they usually do not receive in depth at medical schools. These unconventional procedures and products are used, in some form, by the majority of the world’s population.

Medical schools need to be in touch with the actual needs of future health care professionals. These schools should not be influenced by commercial interests, especially the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Physicians’ decisions determine more than 80% of all medical expenditures. Therefore, they should receive the proper education to enable them to make the best decisions for their patients’ health. Medical professionals also need to be better at teaching their patients how to live healthier lifestyles. patients

How to Improve Unhealthy Lifestyles

If we increase funding for research to identify the most effective lifestyle improvement programs, then we can reduce medical utilization and costs by applying these interventions for the consistent high-risk persons who are most likely to become highest-cost people. For most medical professionals and their patients, the improvement of health-damaging lifestyles is extremely challenging. However, these behaviors can be changed with the appropriate interventions. We need to pay medical professionals very well for this important work. To enhance national health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ report, Healthy People 2010: Understanding and Improving Health, recommends focusing on the following areas for improvement, most of which require major behavior change:

• Physical activity
• Overweight and obesity
• Tobacco use
• Substance abuse
• Responsible sexual behavior

• Mental health (especially depression, a stress-related disorder)

• Injury and violence
• Environmental quality
• Access to medical care.

In addition to clinical duties, the best doctors are also excellent health educators and advisors to their patients. The English word “doctor” is derived from the Latin verb docere, which means, “to teach.” As Dr. Wilfred Funk explained:

Literally a doctor is a teacher, for his name, which is pure Latin, comes from doceo, doctus, “teach.” It was originally applied to any learned man, and we have a certain survival of this when we speak of a Doctor of Letters, Philosophy, or Laws. It was not until the late Middle Ages that a doctor became more particularly a medical man.

There is evidence that educating patients can reduce the need for medical care and expenses. Dr. James F. Fries of Stanford University, the former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, and colleagues evaluated the impact of health education in reducing the need for medical care. They explained their results: “Our review of health education programs designed to reduce health risks and reduce costs identified thirty-two programs with documented effectiveness, generally achieving claims reductions of 20 percent minus the costs of the health education programs.” To restore effectiveness in medicine and to reduce health care costs, doctors will have to return to their original role of teaching.