Covenant of Trust
Driving in a couple of days ago the radio was hyping a radio show covering how 43 billion people are turning to the Internet for medical advice and how this advice couldn’t be trusted and even dangerous. Why aren’t they asking the real question. The medical industry has changed so much that doctors are no longer considered trusted professionals. Instead they are corporate pawns.
They serve the dual masters of the insurance and biotech industries. When there is no reason to suspect that the, professional I’m paying to be my health adviser really has me as his primary concern then verification becomes important. When he tells me I need a particular drug to be better is that because it is the best for me or is it because it is the one with the best kickback? When he tells me I’m well is that because I really am well or is he getting kickbacks from the insurance company for saying so?
These are the real questions in the doctor-patience relationship. It is a product of the fact that the illusion that there is someone who has my interest at heart is fading. When someone claims to be looking out for my interests I have to ask how are they going to be abusing that trust. There are times when our interests align and then perhaps some trust can be given but that is often false.
The doctors financial interests are served by me either being sick or well depending on which side deals they have cut. My actual health is irrelevant to that equation. Financial advisors who make money by executing trade and my interests don’t intersect. Building my wealth doesn’t help him any (except as it allows me to absorb more transaction costs).
Thus we turn away from these people who aren’t aligned with us and seek answers for ourselves. That is the real cultural change. That is the real issues.