A Different Way to Rein in Health Care Costs

"I propose a long-range strategy that begins upstream. If we are serious about controlling both the clinical and financial excesses of what is often called the medical industrial complex (MIC), we must examine the institution that shapes the entire enterprise from the outset: medical education. Medical schools chart the course of medicine. They determine how physicians are trained to think, what they are taught to value, and what they consider to be their responsibility."

"The proposal is straightforward: an independent federal investigation into medical education and its long-term impact on health care delivery and costs. This would not be a punitive exercise, nor an attack on biomedical science. Rather, it would be a comprehensive review-akin to a modern "Flexner Report"-designed to assess whether current training priorities serve the public's needs in the 21st century."

U.S. health care costs rank highest worldwide. Medical education shapes physician thinking, values, responsibilities, and the culture that extends into hospitals, insurers, and industry. A long-range, upstream strategy calls for an independent federal investigation into medical education's long-term effects on care delivery and costs, modeled like a modern Flexner Report. The proposal emphasizes review rather than punishment or anti-science motives. A central concern is the persistent narrow biomedical focus that yields major advances yet devotes little formal training to psychosocial dimensions of illness, including prevention and mental health care.

Read at Psychology Today