The Road Less Traveled: Health Care Alternatives

From what I’ve seen, Arlington residents are very health conscious.  All you have to do is check out any of the markets in town.  You’ll see many people looking carefully at the lists of ingredients.  Or you can see people out exercising in all of the variety of ways and venues that our town offers.

So, when I read this very informative article by Chelsea Conaboy in the September 12^th Boston Globe online edition (“Medical testing gone astray?”), I thought it would be helpful to bring it to folks’ attention.  Ms. Conaboy raised some serious questions about a new direction in medical screening. 

Tufts Medical Center and two other New England hospitals have joined forces with Navix Diagnostix, Inc. to offer community-based vascular testing at a discounted rate.

It may seem like a good thing for many people, but not all experts agree.  In fact some feel that this model is one that not only could harm patients but might not be altogether altruistic.  In other words, it may be a way of bringing revenues to hospitals as well as to Navix.

As Conaboy writes:

But the US Preventive Services Task Force does not recommend the screening tests for the general public - people without symptoms - citing a lack of evidence that they improve long-term health, and the risk of harm from follow-up tests and treatment.

In the same article, Dr. Lisa Schwartz of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice is quoted as saying:

“It’s just irresponsible of an academic medical center to be promoting screening tests which our government agencies or professional organizations are recommending against,,, What’s their responsibility? Is it to the health of the community they serve, or is it to the financial bottom line?’’

These are indeed serious issues.

And from what I’ve read elsewhere, it seems to be an ongoing trend in which the public is encouraged via advertising, their physicians’ advice, or education to seek preventive testing. 

But, I also recall hearing one prominent physician testify at a State House hearing I attended that there is a need to re-educate the public from pursuing the faulty premise that more medical intervention and medication equals better health.

It’s important that those ethical voices in the medical community continue to speak out about these issues. And likewise for those in the media who rightly bring these questions to the populace’s attention.

Yet there’s another trend that I see developing as more thought is given to – well – “thought.”  Specifically, about how thought affects patients’ health outcomes.  How thought affects our entire sense of well-being.  And how a change of thought to a more spiritually-based perspective can and often does bring about better health results.

And for me, that’s the road less traveled.  But it’s a road that should become an expressway.