A Physician Looks at the Challenges of Continuing Care

The always brilliant Dr. Atul Gawande had an insightful piece on what specialists can learn from primary care practitioners in a recent issue of The New Yorker. He draws out the tension between the "heroic" interventions around which much medical education revolves and the "incremental" work done in the primary care field. Gawande uses a Boston headache clinic (where he practices) as an illustration of how many specialists need to focus on continuing care as well as major interventions.

As patients, I think most of us would agree that this kind of self-examination by healthcare providers is timely and important.  "Heroic" measures are one place our medical system can shine---my single best medical experience in the past twenty years was having my appendix out---but people living with chronic illness need a different approach to care. Here's hoping that Gawande's perspective will inspire his colleagues!