RELATIONSHIP MORE IMPORTANT THAN TECHNOLOGY WHEN IT COMES TO CARING FOR PATIENTS: A GOOD LESSON FOR THE DEVELOPING WORLD
When I try to talk to colleagues in the developing world about the non-technological aspects of medical care, they are often indignant, they want the latest technology and to demonstrate to their patients the virtue of having technology at their fingertips.
At the beginning of 20th century, the wags pronounced, Technology will eradicate POVERTY. Has that happened?
Doctors predicted technological advances would cure many of today’s diseases? Has that happened? Why is that in the developed countries they are not able to stop the epidemic of Diabetes which only increases year by year?
Photo: The Annual Pow Wow of the tribe in the Northeastern part of Nebraska,USA
The logic is much like a litigation lawyer who sues doctors and saying: we are the professions that are responsible for the high quality of medical care in America!!
What a twisted mind!
Or the various ads by the pharmaceutical companies who propose that they are in the business of taking care of HEALTH of the people, whereas they should honestly say, we are in the business of making money from the Disease of the people. It was interesting to read the falsification of the amount of money needed to develop a new drug, in a presentation to the American Congress so that the Pharmas can obtain sympathy from the well to do about the high prices they have to charge, without explaining why they are able to sell the same drug at other richer countries for a fraction of the price!
The logic is much like a litigation lawyer who sues doctors and saying: we are the professions that are responsible for the high quality of medical care in America!!
What a twisted mind!
Or the various ads by the pharmaceutical companies who propose that they are in the business of taking care of HEALTH of the people, whereas they should honestly say, we are in the business of making money from the Disease of the people. It was interesting to read the falsification of the amount of money needed to develop a new drug, in a presentation to the American Congress so that the Pharmas can obtain sympathy from the well to do about the high prices they have to charge, without explaining why they are able to sell the same drug at other richer countries for a fraction of the price!
Doctors are not good at Interpersonal relationships because they are never exposed to it in their education or careers. As American Indians would say, it is a good person that becomes a good doctor, becoming a good doctor is not a learned behaviour. Medical schools make you a good technician, and most doctors are mere technicians of disease, whose help we need from time to time, but not as advisors regarding our health and well being, because most of them are incapable of such, or even give us advice regarding something as common as Nutrition. See a Dietician, would say some. And when a doctor said to me, you must pay attention to your nutrition, I try to buttonhole him to explain what he meant, and when he knew that I knew lot more about nutrition than he did, even though he was in the business of diseases of the heart, he backed off.
Showing gory pictures to patients to change their minds about smoking is not cut it. But taking lessons on how to do motivational interviewing will help. We work in closed communities where we know all the members and there families and that the first four visits to see us, we are in the process of building a relationship. It is incredible how at the end of four visits they begin to feel better, the laboratory tests reflecting their well-being.
Mitakuye Oyasin, we are all related.
Without Relationships, no amount of technology or medications can help you, and you would be dying for the wrong reason!
