Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Social history of medicine, self-reliance and health care today
Over my vacation I read a bit on the history of health care in the United States. The Social Transformation of American Medicine, by Paul Starr, was first published in 1982. The author, a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton, gives a fascinating, relevant account in two chunks. In the first section, he details the rise of professional authority among physicians in the U.S. In the second part, he focuses on the relationship of doctors to corporations and government.
I couldn't put this book down. Seriously, it's a page-turner, at least in the first half, for anyone who cares about medical education, doctors' work, and how people find and receive health care. In an early chapter, on medicine in colonial and early 19th Century America, Starr recounts the proliferation of medical schools and doctors, or so-called doctors, in the years after 1812.
One problem of that era, besides a general lack of scientific knowledge about disease, was that it didn't take much to get a medical degree. State licensing laws didn't exist for the most part, and where they did come in place, such as in New York City, they were later rescinded. Then as now, many practicing folks didn't want regulations.
Doctors were scarce and not always trustworthy. People, especially in rural areas, chose or had to be self-reliant. Many referred to lay sources for information. Starr writes of the "domestic" tradition of medical care:
"... Women were expected to deal with illness in the home and to keep a stock of remedies on hand; in the fall, they put away medicinal herbs as they stored preserves. Care of the sick was part of the domestic economy for which the wife assumed responsibility. She would call on networks of kin and community for advice and illness when illness struck ..."
As he describes it, one book, William Buchan's Domestic Medicine, was reprinted at least 30 times. It included a section on causes of disease and preventive measures, and a section on symptoms and treatments. By the mid-19th Century a book by John C. Gunn, also called Domestic Medicine, or Poor Man's Friend ... offered health advice in plain language.
Starr considers these and other references in the context of Protestantism, democracy and early American culture:
"... while the domestic medical guides were challenging professional authority and asserting that families could care for themselves, they were also helping to lay the cultural foundations of modern medical practice--a predominantly secular view of sickness ... the authority of medicine now reached the far larger number who could consult a physician's book."
Reading this now, I can't help but think of the Internet and other popular and accessible resources that challenge or compete with doctors' authority. Other elements of Starr's history pertain to current debates on medical education, credentialing and distribution of providers.
Just days ago, for example, the New York Times ran an editorial on a trend of getting Health Care Where You Work. The paper reported on Bellin Health, an allegedly non-profit entity, that designs on-site clinics for medium-sized companies. "It has managed to rein in costs while improving the availability and quality of care--in large part by making it easier for patients to see nurses and primary care doctors," according to the Times opinion. The clinics are "staffed part-time by nurses, nurse practitioners or physician assistants, who handle minor injuries and illnesses, promote healthy living and conduct preventive screenings."
The editorial touts Dartmouth Atlas data and other high marks for the care Bellin provides at low costs to possibly happy workers and their satisfied employers. Still, it's not clear to me that an on-site clinic would be a great or even a good place to seek care if you had a subtle blood disorder or something like the newly-reported Heartland virus.
On reading the editorial on delivering health care to the workplace, I was reminded of Starr's tale of the development of clinics at railroad and mining companies in the first half of the 20th Century. This happened mainly is rural areas where few doctors lived, at industry sites where injuries were frequent. The workers, by Starr's account, were generally suspicious of the hired physicians and considered them inferior to private doctors whom they might choose if they became ill. They resented paying mandatory fees to support those on-site doctors' salaries. Doctors' groups, like the AMA, generally opposed and even ostracized those "company doctors" for selling out, or themselves, at a lower price.
The second half of the Social Transformation, on failed attempts at reform before 1982, is somewhat but not entirely outdated in light of Obamacare and 40 years intervening. But many of the issues, such as consideration of the "market" for doctors and the number of physicians we need, relate to the papers of this week including an Economix column by another Princeton professor, Uwe Reinhardt, who puts forth a view that, well, I don't share. As I understand his position, Reinhardt suggests that there may be no real shortage of doctors, because physicians can always scrunch their workloads to fit the time allotted. But that's a separate matter ...
In sum, on the Social Transformation, today: Worthwhile! Curious! Pertinent! Starr's book is chock full of history "lessons" that might inform medical practice in 2012. And I haven't even mentioned my favorite segments on prohibiting doctors' advertisements (think websites, now), the average workload of physicians before 1900 (think 5 or so patients per day), and the impact of urbanization on medical care and doctors' lives and specialization.
This post originally appeared at Medical Lessons, written by Elaine Schattner, ACP Member, a nonpracticing hematologist and oncologist who teaches at Weill Cornell Medical College, where she is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine. She shares her ideas on education, ethics in medicine, health care news and culture. Her views on medicine are informed by her past experiences in caring for patients, as a researcher in cancer immunology and as a patient who's had breast cancer.
Labels: Elaine Schattner, guest post, Literature in medicine, medical history, Medical Lessons, public health
posted by Elaine Schattner, MD at
11:00 AM
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Members of the American College of Physicians contribute posts from their own sites to ACP Internistand ACP Hospitalist. Contributors include:
Albert Fuchs,
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Albert Fuchs, MD, FACP, graduated from the
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also did his internal medicine training. Certified by the American
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And Thus, It Begins
Amanda Xi, ACP Medical
Student Member, is a first-year medical student at the OUWB School
of Medicine, charter class of 2015, in Rochester, Mich., from which
she which chronicles her journey through medical training from day
1 of medical school.
Zackary Berger
Zackary Berger, MD, ACP Member, is a primary care doctor and
general internist in the Division of General Internal Medicine at
Johns Hopkins. His research interests include doctor-patient
communication, bioethics, and systematic reviews.
Controversies in Hospital
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Run by three ACP
Fellows, this blog ponders vexing issues in infection prevention
and control, inside and outside the hospital. Daniel J Diekema, MD,
FACP, practices infectious diseases, clinical microbiology, and
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db's Medical Rants
Robert M. Centor, MD, FACP, contributes short essays contemplating
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DrDialogue
Juliet K. Mavromatis, MD, FACP, provides a conversation about
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Dr. Mintz' Blog
Matthew Mintz, MD, FACP, has practiced internal medicine for more
than a decade and is an Associate Professor of Medicine at an
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Everything
Health
Toni Brayer, MD, FACP, blogs about the rapid changes in science,
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FutureDocs
Vineet Arora, MD, FACP, is Associate Program Director for the
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Ryan Madanick, MD, ACP Member, is a gastroenterologist at the
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I'm dok
Mike Aref, MD, PhD, FACP, is an academic hospitalist with an
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William Hersh, MD, FACP, Professor and Chair, Department of Medical
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David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACP, is an internationally renowned
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Just Oncology
Richard Just, MD, ACP Member, has 36 years in clinical practice of
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KevinMD
Kevin Pho, MD, ACP Member, offers one of the Web's definitive sites
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MD
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Michael Kirsch, MD, FACP, addresses the joys and challenges of
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Elaine Schattner, MD, FACP, shares her ideas on education, ethics
in medicine, health care news and culture. Her views on medicine
are informed by her past experiences in caring for patients, as a
researcher in cancer immunology, and as a patient who's had breast
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Mired in MedEd
Alexander M.
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Rob Lamberts, MD, ACP Member, a med-peds and general practice
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David M. Sack, MD, FACP, practices general gastroenterology at a
small community hospital in Connecticut. His blog is a series of
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medical ethics, in no particular order.
Reflections of a Grady
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Kimberly Manning, MD, FACP, reflects on the personal side of being
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The Blog of Paul Sufka
Paul Sufka,
MD, ACP Member, is a board certified rheumatologist in St. Paul,
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University of Minnesota and then completed his fellowship training
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Technology in (Medical)
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Neil Mehta, MBBS, MS, FACP, is interested in use of technology in
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Peter A. Lipson,
MD
Peter A. Lipson, MD, ACP Member, is a practicing internist and
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around in various forms since 2007, offers musings on the
intersection of science, medicine, and culture.
Why is American Health Care So Expensive?
Janice
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adopting a career in hospital and primary care medicine as a locum
tenens physician. She lives in Idaho when not traveling.
World's Best Site
Daniel Ginsberg, MD,
FACP, is an internal medicine physician who has avidly applied
computers to medicine since 1986, when he first wrote medically
oriented computer programs. He is in practice in Tacoma,
Washington.
Other blogs of note:
American Journal of
Medicine
Also known as the Green Journal, the American Journal of Medicine
publishes original clinical articles of interest to physicians in
internal medicine and its subspecialities, both in academia and
community-based practice.
Clinical
Correlations
A collaborative medical blog started by Neil Shapiro, MD, ACP
Member, associate program director at New York University Medical
Center's internal medicine residency program. Faculty, residents
and students contribute case studies, mystery quizzes, news,
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Interact MD
Michael Benjamin, MD, ACP member, doesn't accept industry money so
he can create an independent, clinician-reviewed space on the
Internet for physicians to report and comment on the medical news
of the day.
PLoS Blog
The Public Library of Science's open access materials include a
blog.
White Coat
Rants
One of the most popular anonymous blogs written by an emergency
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