If we identify it after the fact, we have to decide how to manage the disease. There must be an integrative system. We need a very different approach from five years ago. Health care reform is difficult to talk about these days. Can't do much with the conventional notion of care and prevention-we must expand the vision.
People still think that what makes people well are doctors, nurses, hospitals, and drugs.
We need to have social scientists as allies, not just hard science people. A recent Times article proposes that doctors may be giving too much care-that less is more. Enthusiastic kids come into medical schools saying they're interested in prevention but leave without knowing much more about it. We give them anticipatory guidance, but no hard research on how it works-no validation. Medical professors must ensure that our medical students have some ability to evaluate data and their validity.