After 45 years as a practicing physician, I know firsthand that our healthcare system is deeply broken.
Instead of promoting health, the medical profession focuses on diagnosing diseases and finding reasons to treat them with medications, procedures and infinite testing. A system based on fearmongering is depriving the public of true information and solutions for a better quality life and increased healthy lifespan.
Our medical profession is in shambles and communication between doctors, and doctors and patients, is practically inexistent. Is there any chance the situation can be improved in our lifetime?
Sadly, the only way to change it is to go back to the root cause of the problem.
We expect our doctors to “First, do no harm.” It is the underlying theme of the medical field. And yet, as Peter Pronovost, MD from Johns Hopkins found after 30 years of following causes for medical errors, “physician arrogance” is the number one reason why doctors make mistakes.
Medical training doesn’t teach respect towards patients. Medical school is a cult that trains young doctors to only follow rules imposed by special interests and put individual patient care at the bottom of the list.
COVID has made the situation worse. Since the healthcare system lost a lot of money during the pandemic, testing and procedures have increased in order to make up for the financial losses. Now there is a frenzy to find more disease and create more fear around medical care of all types. Unless we make a conscientious effort to eliminate fear and refuse to allow ourselves to be victims, we will lose the entire healthcare system for good.
A little bit about me. I was born in Romania. My parents brought me to New York at 16 and I went to college at NYU and medical school at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine in Brooklyn, NY. I completed my residency in Internal Medicine and Critical Care at Kings County Hospital Center, New York. I then became the Director of Emergency Medicine at Westchester County Medical Center at the age of 28, becoming the youngest and first female doctor in the country to direct a trauma center in a major university hospital. I know when a person is sick and how to treat acute problems. The problem with our system is that we don’t know how to treat chronic illness nor prevent its nefarious effects.
The doctor doesn’t live in your body, so for that reason alone, the doctor doesn’t know best. You know your body better than anyone else. I encourage you to share as much as you can about what you’re experiencing. If your doctor isn’t listening, find another one who wants to be your partner, who will actually listen to you before whipping out a prescription pad. If you don’t own your body and your situation, you will unequivocally be placing yourself in danger.
It doesn’t have to feel awkward or scary. It’s really quite liberating once you start getting to know your body and enjoying what it’s telling you. I’m happy to help you on your personal health journey. That’s why I’ve started this blog. I hope you follow me and become the expert on you and your health.