In the not-too-distant future, most illnesses will be treatable without the need for a physician. So, what do we need them for, really? Soon, patients will be able to use technology to help themselves. They won’t be interested in us, in the self-important physicians who believe we’re doing the work of God. Before we know it, watches and bathrooms will have snuck right past us. From the perspective of a patient, or someone who fears becoming one, this imminent change is positive because it means that a glance at a watch and a trip to the bathroom will soon be able to tell us more about our health than a doctor.
But from a doctor’s perspective, the future doesn’t look as bright. Nor does the present. Our healthcare systems are overwhelmed. As it stands, there are fewer doctors, more illnesses, and the cost of medication is on the rise. Our system is headed straight for the cliff’s edge.
Sometimes, when things are at their bleakest, our imagination whisks us off to the tropics or back to the good old days. And these days, that’s what everyone is doing. We’re drowning in technology, and if you think about it, weren’t things better back when our healthcare was more analog? When the small-town doctor had time to be present. When there were no screens separating him and his patients. He was just one person meeting another.
Most people have a romanticized idea of the past and its small-town doctor. The noble gentleman who showered his patients with attention and care. He was an active member of the community—someone you knew outside the hospital—and he had no skeletons in the closet. He was a prime example of a good doctor.
And that sounds great. The presence, compassion, and credibility must have been wonderful. But the truth is that the good old days weren’t all that good. In reality, the small-town doctor and his colleagues were bad doctors, at least if your definition of a doctor is someone with the ability to cure sickness. When illness struck, there wasn’t all that much they could do, in part because their toolbox contained little more than a stethoscope.
And while he wasn’t lonely, the small-town doctor was alone. On his own. There weren’t many specialists, and where there was a link between physicians and hospitals, it was nothing to write home about.
The small-town doctor had studied massive textbooks, but the knowledge they contained was typically 5-10 years old. On top of that, it was practically impossible to do a quick scan of the literature for updated information.
Despite all that, the small-town doctors of the past were revered. They had credibility that politicians and journalists would have killed for, and that meant there was no such thing as doctors and patients working together. Patients would come to their doctors on their hands and knees and return to their homes with recommendations, if not orders. We have, thankfully, become wiser over time. Health is and always will be a collaboration—not just between doctor and patient, but also between doctor and doctor, technology and people, and healthcare systems and society.
