JEFF STONE: Trust In The Medical Industry

The erosion of trust and confidence in the medical industry has had serious ramifications and it began well before COVID, the Internet and private health insurance or Medicare. The lack of trust has serious consequences for everyone, particularly in costs. Improving that trust would pay dividends in lower costs and better outcomes.

Though many resources analyzing this exist, in this brief article we'll touch on some of the trust busters and what prescriptions might be available to reverse that trend. Trust in your pharmacist, Family Doctor or nurse may be different than your trust in Pharma, Government or Insurances but each plays a role in the integrity of the industry.

The information gap that exists between Medicine and the patient is staggering and while a gap is present in plumbing, piloting an aircraft or programming none require as much time and education to achieve mastery. Not to disparage or underestimate those professions but all agree the more experienced and well trained among them is who you would choose.

And it takes long years to become a physician. Some professions require licensing, but others do not. An agent (government or standard bearer) provides that level of oversight but further distances the client from the service provider while certifying and ensuring quality.

Unfortunately, too many failures in the system of oversight have failed in the past. Oversight and credentialing are still an important tool in preserving trust. As a patient, your responsibility is to check credentials and ask for them. It's no coincidence that most offices display them prominently. Even among licensed MDs without a label of Board Certification, you are getting a lesser product with fewer qualifications.

The Internet is ripe with so-called experts and fabricated titles like "functional medicine doctor." Be careful. The craziest and loudest voices are amplified by social media and fed by an algorithm cultivated by what you would like to hear. Not very often the truth.

Don't mistake the Internet as expertise. It is a terrible and wonderful place. Sites like Mayoclinic.org and Familydoctor.org speak in plain language and can be helpful. Artificial Intelligence draws from a lot of flawed databases with inadequate, inaccurate or just false information. Seek advice from reliable sources but don't mistake your searches for 7 years of mandatory postgraduate education, licensure and experience to close the information gap.

Other saboteurs to medical trust include high priced pharmaceuticals and stingy insurance companies who don't want to pay for care, Nutraceuticals with unfounded claims and snazzy ads implying what they cannot deliver, plaintiff's attorneys seeking 'jackpot justice' for life's everyday risks, legislative mandates and government policy driven by politics without scientific support and news of fraud, waste and abuse by medical professionals.

More recently, the latter point of government distrust of science and medicine has fueled the perception that no one in medicine is to be trusted, even our most prestigious journals and scientists. So how can the average person overcome these influences? Well, it starts with the Doctor-Patient relationship.

Establishing that relationship may take time and investigations. Seeking their credentials is basic and every physician in Georgia is required to be badged for their profession. Sure, seek reviews but they're not always reliable and nothing substitutes for the face-to-face interview.

Ask questions that you would ask a friend and don't be afraid to ask if the physician is acting in your best interest. One example I give is to seek vaccinations from the pharmacy or County Health Department and not necessarily from me if you think I'm somehow profiting from this advice and service. Second opinions are welcomed from qualified individuals. Inevitably, it comes down to clear communications, active listening, feeling heard, compassion and empathy not just clinical skills.

Once established, your "navigator" can help you through the medical industrial complex to make the right choices. They can educate you to the alarmist strategies and stories that influencers and the Nutraceutical industry utilize to get you to buy something unfit for you. In a true partnership, you can see past the use of celebrity biases to act on responsible decisions.

If the direct-to-consumer ads puzzle you, ask yourself, "If this were any good, why do they have to advertise?" Why wouldn't my doctor recommend it without prompting it?

Become an activist and demand more from your insurance company with contacts to John King, our Insurance Commissioner at consumer@oci.ga.gov.

Write your congressional legislators and demand Mediation and Tort Reform over Jackpot Justice, higher standards for Nutraceuticals, lower costs from Pharma, more residency programs to supply enough physicians for our State particularly in Primary Care and 'responsible free speech' on the Web held accountable to claims that do more harm than good. If your doctor's relationship is not good enough, then help them establish one or seek another doctor to do so.

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