Opportunities & Challenges: The Changing Role of the Physician in Modern Society

Opportunities & Challenges: The Changing Role of the Physician in Modern Society THE DOCTOR’S NOTEBOOK: A series of opinion articles written by prominent medical leaders Opportunities & Challenges: The Changing Role of the Physician in Modern Society By, Delon Human, MD Immediate Past and for 8 Years Secretary General of The World Medical Association The world has changed a great deal in the 2500. [...] As more and more elderly patients need care, and governments run out of money to pay for that care, it is easy to see who is often at the systems’ breaking point: the doctor. [...] But the demise of those who take their vocation so seriously, that they swear an oath to practice it, can only be avoided if morale can be raised not only to retain existing practitioners but to attract the highest calibre of students who can be the healers of the future. [...] It may be that it is only by moving outside the clinic, the hospital and the consulting room and taking their views into the halls of government that physicians can protect their ability to do what they have always done best: treat the sick. [...] To preserve and enhance their place in the community and to keep their pact with Hippocrates, physicians may have to treat more than just their patients, but the actual healthcare system in which they work.