Becoming an information master: using "medical poetry" to remove the inequities in health care delivery.
In response to the spiraling costs, the US populace, for now, has chosen to ration health care by choosing who can receive it rather than what services are provided. Changing this approach will require an organized national policy and will be difficult. Clinicians must accept that providing minimally beneficial but not absolutely necessary care to their patients increases cost without significantly improving quality, and results in more people who lack adequate health care. The public must accept that exclusively focusing health care decisions on individuals places patients in conflict with their community, their family, and, eventually, themselves. Effectively using valid Patient-Oriented Evidence that Matters (POEMs) will give family physicians the tools necessary to improve the value of health care services. Family physicians are in the unique position to guide the necessary changes in health care delivery to resolve these conflicts and to be leaders in this process.
Slawson
D C
DC
University of Virginia Department of Family Medicine, Charlottesville 22908, USA. Dslawson@virginia.edu
Shaughnessy
A F
AF
D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005194:Family Practice; D015276:Health Care Rationing; D006300:Health Services Misuse; D006801:Humans; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012935:Social Justice; D014481:United States