Dr. Relman Offers a Second Opinion

Dr. Arnold Relman, the former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and the doyen of contemporary health care critics, offers a must read essay on the decline of medical professionalism in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association. He notes:

Physicians have always been concerned with earning a comfortable living, and there have always been some who were driven by greed, but the current focus on money-making and the seductions of financial rewards have changed the climate of US medical practice at the expense of professional altruism and the moral commitment to patients. The vast amount of money in the US medical care system and the manifold opportunities for physicians to earn high incomes have made it almost impossible for many to function as true fiduciaries for patients.

You can read the full essay here.