Historically, the practice of medicine was highly regarded and demonstrated a precious connection between physician and patient. One  of mutual admiration, trust, and care. In recent years, those attitudes have changed significantly. The main social network for doctors in the US, SERMO, recently included an extended debate about how patients feel about their physician. The opinion was that patients possess a mistaken thought about their physician’s economic interests. Patients understand that medicine can be a business, however they don’t know where the cash goes, and this has harmed many physician-patient relationships.

In my own youth, a family doctor that lived just down the street made house calls. I am reasonably certain his practice functioned mainly in cash and his patients knew what they were spending money on.  There were no practice managers or midlevel “physician extenders” to boost revenue. I doubt that he was in medicine for the money. He was…