I thought it was a joke but you had seemed perplexed a couple of times so just wanted to be sure.
Thanks for the help, Bert.
At this point, I'm not so perplexed as I am outraged.
Here I am in Seattle (UofW medical school) at a "Family Medicine Review" course.
A distressing waste of time and money.
They started off with a "pain specialist" telling us we are in the mess we are in because of "poor training of primary care providers."
Then went on to detail all the wonderful advances made in interventional pain management. Didn't happen to mention that only a tiny subset of pain sufferers have access or could potentially benefit.
Then came a supposedly "motivational" segment -- yes, indeed, with proper training, the FP's and other "PCP's" can provide meaningful pain relief to their patients. -- The message here being that it is our job to sort out the people with insurance and qualifying conditions for pain management, and refer them to the "specialists." (And keep all the rest for ourselves.)
Then there was a lecture on Hepatitis C -- there are probably 15 new treatments, that vary in effectiveness. But the choice of treatment (or not) depends on your insurance carrier -- not on matching patient to treatment.
Then a segment on adolescent obesity -- in which the influence of advertising and fast food was completely ignored.
And there is more - I'm only a day into a 5-day course.
I am totally disgusted -- American medicine is no longer a profession, it is an industry, and a rank, twisted, self-serving organization at that.
I am wasting several thousand dollars for me and my wife (a CNM/FNP) to take a week out of the office, pay someone to cover the office, pay for transportation, hotel, and not to mention a week of life (increasingly short!) -- for a dumbed down mishmash of dubious truth, let alone value.
All for the demigod of MOC.
