How the Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors and Patients
Are you getting the medical care you hoped for? Perhaps you really like your doctor and feel listened to and well treated. Or maybe you’re frustrated with the lack of coordinated medical care, unconscious bias, and medical systems that don’t keep patients well-being at the center of their decisions. Most people agree that the US health care system is broken, but there is also a less talked about problem to address— “physician culture.” My guest, Dr. Robert Pearl, says, “Doctors are not heroes or villains. They produce remarkable successes and abysmal failures.” We’ll discuss what doctors do well, and how some miss the mark on compassionate, science based, high quality, and effective medicine for all.
**Listen now to About Health on KPFA.org—94.1FM, (7/12/21)**
https://kpfa.org/player/?audio=360279
ROBERT PEARL, M.D. is the former CEO of The Permanente Medical Group (1999-2017), the nation’s largest medical group, and former president of The Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group (2009-2017). In these roles he led 10,000 physicians, 38,000 staff and was responsible for the nationally recognized medical care of 5 million Kaiser Permanente members. Named one of Modern Healthcare’s 50 most influential physician leaders, he is an advocate for the power of integrated, prepaid, technologically advanced and physician-led healthcare delivery. He serves as a clinical professor of plastic surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine and is on the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he teaches courses on strategy and leadership, and lectures on information technology and health care policy. Board certified in plastic and reconstructive surgery, Dr. Pearl received his medical degree from the Yale University School of Medicine, followed by a residency in plastic and reconstructive surgery at Stanford University.
He is the author of “Mistreated: Why We think We’re Getting Good Healthcare—And Why We’re Usually Wrong,” and his most recent book is, Uncaring: How the Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors and Patients. All proceeds from the book go to Doctors Without Borders.
Dr. Pearl hosts the podcasts Fixing Healthcare and Coronavirus: The Truth and he publishes a newsletter, Monthly Musings on American Healthcare. He has published more than 100 articles in medical journals and contributed to numerous books. From 2012 to 2017, Dr. Pearl served as chairman of the Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP), which includes the nation’s largest and best multispecialty medical groups, and participated in the Bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Delivery System Reform and Health IT in Washington, D.C. Connect with Dr. Robert Pearl on Twitter @RobertPearlMD, LinkedIn, and at his website robertpearlmd.com.
Heart Based Medicine
Listen NOW to About Health (9/2/19) to learn about Heart Based Medicine and how it can change how doctors and patients relate and heal.
https://kpfa.org/player/?audio=317754
“Imagine a medical system that puts the patient back into the center of healing, and where the doctor-patient relationship is the keystone to that healing. More and more medical professionals all around the world are recognizing that unless they engage their hearts, and fully connect with their patients, they are failing to offer the best version of themselves, and then their healing potential is limited. Heart Based Medicine was formed to resuscitate the heart of healing within healthcare.” www.heartbasedmedicine.org
Guest
Dr. Jan Bonhoeffer is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Basel Children’s Hospital, in Switzerland. He has built and led large global research networks to improve child health, has published over 100 scientific papers and book chapters on infectious diseases and vaccines, and worked with the World Health Organization to shape global health programs. In 2015, Dr. Bonhoeffer underwent a significant shift in the way that he thought about medicine. He realized that moments of true healing occur when he is not simply executing state of the art medical knowledge, but when he is participating in a healing event with the patient, which he is not in control of. So now he focusses on the human-to-human transmission of disease and disease prevention in the way that we affect each other. He is the founder of Heart Based Medicine https://heartbasedmedicine.org/about/
Register for the Heart Based Medicine 2019 Summit (September 12-14) https://heartbasedmedicine.org/summit-registration
Homelessness: A public health crisis
Listen now to our show from 11/27/17, on KPFA.org 94.1FM
https://kpfa.org/archives
Being unhoused makes it difficult, and in some cases impossible, to access general health services. Poor health, addiction, mental illness, and violence are some things that lead to homelessness, and homelessness can make all of these things worse.
The majority of adults that experience homelessness have more than one health issue. They range from hypertension and diabetes to HIV and viral hepatitis, but the most significant reasons people go to emergency-rooms are mental illness and addiction. The sick and vulnerable become homeless, and the homeless become sicker and more vulnerable.
Guests:
Alejandro Soto-Vigil comes from a family of activists in the Bay Area. Last year he was re-elected to his second term on the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board. After 8 years working in the City of Berkeley as a legislative aide, Alejandro now serves as the program manager for the Berkeley Drop-In Center, an organization that has served Berkeley’s homeless residents for over 25 years. Alejandro majored in political sciences at UC Berkeley.
Jeffrey Seal is the medical director and interim director of Alameda County Health Care for the Homeless, as well as an Assistant Clinical Professor in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry. He has worked at the Child Psychiatry Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health. He completed his medical degree at Boston University, a psychiatry residency at UCSF, and a chief residency at San Francisco General Hospital. He grew up on the Gulf Coast of Alabama, and currently lives in Oakland CA. He is a current California Health Care Foundation Leadership fellow and has special interests in public health systems, social determinants of health, re-entry populations, and trauma.