From the Clinics to the Countryside
by Teofilo San Luis Jr., MD; Malaya P. Santos, MD
Medicine is both an Art and a Science. The alphabet itself affirms that “A” (for Art) precedes “S” (for Science). And rightly so. The “art” of healing had come from olden times, very much way ahead of the beginnings of “science” (or what was known about it).
Medical training in the past hundred years had been focused in developing physicians and instilling in them knowledge and inherent skills from interacting with the sick seeking their attention and care. An astute analysis of symptoms and appropriate correlation with physical signs were enough to arrive at a reasonable diagnosis. This has brought about what is called “clinical acumen.”
However, in the more recent years, and with the advent of technology as applied to Medicine, there has been a shift in the ordering of things. It is not the fault of technology that it now carries more mention and reference when it comes to patient care; technology now plays what seems to be a more prominent role in diagnosis and management of the afflicted. Patient history and PE are now used to correlate the findings in the laboratory, or in the imaging procedures, or other interventions done, instead of the other way around.
Thus, when medical students graduate and start pursuing needed training in their chosen fields on interest, they would invariably be utilizing technology more than clinical acumen in dealing with patients. They would be even at a loss how to proceed when the technological / ancillary aids are not available. The “S” has overtaken the “A” in patient care.
More so when they start their own private practice, their reliance on “S” becomes almost absolute and a major factor in the choice of location of practice. They would even set up their own laboratories or imaging centers in order to have their “toys” always with them. And, as words get around and their reputation spreads, patients would invariably come. If analogy will have to be made, they are like rabbits which dig holes in the ground, enjoy living in it, rarely venturing out, if at all.
Meanwhile, countless people in communities in the peripheries do not have the luxury of having well-trained physicians to look after them. Or, if ever, these people will have to travel and spend much just to be attended to. To be sure, the MDs’ “toys” would have to be mobilized to “clinch the diagnosis”, even if quite evident to begin with. And the scenario repeats itself in so many forms, and in so many situations.
The new School of Medicine has its thrust to form its graduates who will have the necessary knowledge, aptitude and skills as competent and compassionate physicians who will venture out of their comfort zones in their clinics and into the countryside where their services are much needed. This will be the Corporate Social Responsibility of the new school. The “A” comes before the “S.”
