Setting the stage for DPC

Here is an interview from my Surviving Healthcare podcast.  It is a story about the loss of relationship between patients and physicians.  This conversation is one that set me on a journey to find workable solutions to improve healthcare for patients and physicians. 

Here is some background:

My guest, Dr. Robert A. Linden, has been a practicing physician for more than three decades as an internist whose specialty is geriatrics, and he wrote a book entitled The Rise and Fall of the American Medical Empire, which deals with the medical industry and its changing role in the overall economy.

Dr. Linden and I talk about the concept of “American medical empire” and how it has transformed the healthcare system from a professional model run by medical professionals into a corporate model that is more concerned with profit. We discuss the frustration felt by traditional physicians like Dr. Linden, who lists the four biggest problems he sees with healthcare delivery these days. They are:

  • Death of primary care
  • Health care reform and insurance
  • Big Pharma
  • Medical malpractice

​We discuss how the proliferation of insurance reduced the knowledge level of the average patient and effectively took them out of the equation. Dr. Linden explains how we overuse specialists and sub-specialists, and laments the loss of what used to be a special patient-physician relationship.

​He then explains how the healthcare system’s shift from a doctor-centric medical system to a business model has led to problems that are all detrimental. Dr. Linden suggests that we get back to “captain of the ship” and continuity of care concepts in order to make the system better.

Enjoy!

P.S. - If you want to skip the introduction, go directly to location 2:00​

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