Donald J. Palmisano, MD,
JD, a member of the Board of Trustees for the American Medical Association,
gave the keynote address at the APA State Joint Legislative and Public Affairs
Institute in Miami, Fla. Excerpts from his remarks follow:
Critical
issues face us in the practice of Medicine. Looming on the horizon is the
threat of loss of patient privacy, prescribing of medications by
pseudo-physicians, continued managed care abuses and perpetuation of
discrimination against mental illness treatment parity. As formidable as these
threats are, today I'd like to share with you a vision of hope.
Do you
believe that together we can overcome the abuses of managed care? Do you
believe that together we can protect patient privacy? Do you believe that
together we can overcome antiquated antitrust laws so that we can truly
negotiate together for our patients? Do you believe that together we can
achieve parity in mental health care?
Do you believe that together we
can convince the legislators throughout our great land that prescribing of
medications by psychologists results in an answer of a loud NO! to the
question: "Is it good medicine?" Finally, do you believe that together we can
achieve a vision that would weed these challenges out at the very root-weed
them out through our will and power to change the framework of insurance
coverage to patient ownership, defined contribution, choice and an array of
products?
I believe - the AMA believes - and I ask you to believe.
Together we can make it happen. Together we will make it happen . .
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We have now entered the
new millennium. But more important than the calendar, we also stand on the
threshold of an explosion of knowledge - a quantum leap in our understanding of
the code of life and in the tools that will enable us to convert that
understanding into health for our patients. In the skillful hands of those I
see before me, this knowledge and new tools give us an unprecedented
opportunity to allay - and conquer - diseases that have plagued humankind
throughout history.
But these great advances will mean nothing unless
we preserve ethical science-based medicine, respect for the dignity of the
individual and the sacred relationship between a doctor and a patient.
Choice for patients and physicians, medical record confidentiality,
antitrust relief, individual responsibility, true mental health parity; these
are the keys to a bright future - a vision of hope. Let us say No to
opportunists, who only look at the bottom line; to defeatists who say all is
hopeless; to Luddites who decry technology; and to certain politicians who
promise the fool's gold of scapegoating honorable physicians with oppressive
regulations, police state invasion and intimidation.
Let us refuse to
follow these false prophets into the abyss- and let us instead offer a brighter
path - a better path.. We need leaders who will pursue this vision with
courage, candor and confidence. I am confident such leaders exist in the APA,
the AMA and all of the State Medical and National and State Specialty
Societies. |
