The medical road we traverse today in America is paved with moral violations and money-hungry corporations. In a capitalist world, medicine is no different from any other industry, albeit most industries don't devalue human life quite as blatantly as healthcare does. Twenty-five years of experience in primary care and geriatrics has given me a better idea of what not to do as a good doctor.
What's scarier? The fact that the people who we trust with our lives might just be looking to make a buck, no matter how bloody? Or, the fact that members of our own workforce have had enough of the institutionalized murder? Check out my books at the Andy Lazris store to find out.
If you buy The Geriatrics Vengeance Club online, it becomes apparent that if you're an American citizen, then both are a problem. This 3D fictional book online follows a doctor trying to calm his rage as the government divests the Freedom of Choice as if it were a mechanical part that had become redundant. In the bigger scale of things, fiction or real, it's no surprise when the system commits an appallingly hypocritical crime.
It's the way things have been done for decades, only they used to be swept further under the rug.
Why Is Immorality In Healthcare Only Coming To Light Now?
Today, freedom of access means you can buy healthcare reform books with real statistics and stories from the inside. Online COVID-19 bookstores have little mercy when dissecting the many missteps that led to lost lives amidst a pandemic. Check out Utilizing Effective Risk Communication in COVID-19, published with Springer and written with Erik Rifkin to make important information comprehensible to the average person.
With much media hype surrounding the book's publication, readers have found it to be a great resource when making informed choices. What's the purpose of a democracy when a healthy portion of the population can't grasp the basis for the rules they're in favor of? An uninformed public can hardly be expected to choose the policies that are in their best interest.
The immorality in healthcare dates back to the early 1900s when the decision to plow down the road of medicine for money won the popular vote over the kind of medical care that today, you'll only find in marketing strategies. Sadly, if you want to experience the kind of system we deserve, you can shop for healthcare system-related books all you want, but you'll only succeed in an online fiction bookshop.
How Did We Get Here?
You'd think that anything would be better than the medical industry we boast in 2022, but there's an actual stencil left long in the past that could have become the foundation of a holistic and compassionate system that was built around saving lives. It's so utopian compared to what we have that one would think it's straight out of a historical fiction book. However, it's the subject of an up-and-coming novel that should arrive in nonfiction bookstores online in the first half of 2023.
A Fork in the Road in Baltimore promises a trip back to 1911 because the tale of healthcare past can be traced back to two men—William Osler and Abraham Flexner.
Each one had his respective ideologies, and as luck would have it, they were polarized as could be. This novel-to-be is definitely on the list of best nonfiction books to read in 2023.
Abraham Flexner — The High School Teacher With A Penchant For Racism
Flexner wasn't a doctor or in any way affiliated with medical practices, apart from his significantly impactful insights. His qualifications were as follows:
Born in Kentucky in 1866, he completed high school and went to Johns Hopkins University.
He obtained a B.A. in Classics.
He pursued graduate studies but couldn't complete his courses of choice.
His brother, Simon Flexner, studied medicine and went on to become a researcher for the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. The other brother, Jacob Flexner, became a practicing physician in Louisville. This was his closest connection to medicine.
He taught Classics at a Louisville high school for four years before setting up a private school. This school was his experimental playground for testing teaching strategies that went against the norm. He also married an ex-student.
He changed the world of medicine forever.
In 1908, he decided that his experimental successes had put him at a level of authority that allowed him to comment on education at large. He published a book called The American College. While it's worth noting that this book was nothing more than a commentary on the approach to higher education, which is very much the same today as it was then, the book attracted the attention of Henry Pritchett, the president of the Carnegie Foundation.
Since the book repeatedly sided with Pritchett's views on education, the educators arranged to meet.
Just like that, the renowned president of a notable institution has named Abraham Flexner, a man with no medical experience, his first choice to conduct a study of medical education in America. Although all of Flexner's career experience came from teaching Classics to high school students, he set about in a ruthless critique of a system he knew nothing about.
Therein was born the highly-consequential Flexner Report, which was as long as a book. With this amateur assessment, the people in charge set about shutting down several medical colleges. Any attribute that Flexner took issue with in his report became a huge offense by educators. Schools were shut down for educating people of color, educating people from rural backgrounds, or giving too much value to homeopathy or osteopathy.
The man was like a supervillain in a medical fiction book online.
If you've ever wondered why there's a lack of diversity in medicine, it's because, in 1910, Abraham Flexner didn't want to risk exposing the "unfortunate white" to "hookworm and tuberculosis”. It's apparent that this high school teacher was living far in the past.
Fortunately, osteopathic medical colleges survived, but only on the condition that they adapted their methodology so much that it became a slightly embellished replica of traditional medicine.
With that, Flexner Report became the basis of medical education and still is, even though much of what it posited has been repeatedly proved problematic. Then, of course, there's the Osler side of the story.
William Osler — The Right Guy For The Job
Osler, whose vision for medicine was greatly impassioned and genuinely caring, actually had a medical degree. It's clear from this man's story, starting from his choice to abandon theology for medical school to his hallmark speeches about compassionate care, that his opinions and ideas stem from a place of real dedication.
His list of qualifications in the medical field is too long to list, and he spent a lot of his life finding and creating platforms for scientific minds and intellectuals to share and build upon their ideas. He was the first medical educator to bring up the idea of bedside manner in care, and he stressed the importance of properly communicating with and knowing the patient before designing a treatment plan.
Osler was the true embodiment of the Hippocratic Oath, while Flexner was its antithesis. Sadly, his contribution to the healthcare system was restricted to scientific discoveries but had his teachings been given more weight, we might have had more of a healthcare system and less of a medical industry.
Osler's Elysian Hospitals
If Osler saw the state of healthcare today, he'd tell you to shop for health benefits-related books, eat an apple a day, and keep all doctors far away. Unfortunately, the only place you'd find some semblance of Oslerian care is online fiction bookstores, but here are a few things that would be different if, a hundred years ago, humanity had known better than to let the capitalist mania into healthcare.
Depression and other mental health disorders wouldn't be classified as brain disorders and would have been explored in depth. Their treatment would include fewer pharmaceuticals and more holistic approaches.
Big pharma wouldn't be as big and certainly wouldn't have the ability to buy doctors to push drugs on ailing people.
The procedures for end-of-life care would be built with mercy and empathy, not for profit.
Medicare would serve its purpose, and fewer Americans would be in medical debt.
There would be an active push in the medical community to make care affordable and accessible.
There would be many more options in healthcare, as well as a more diverse team of healthcare workers.
I use my work to get into the details of all of the open secrets that aren't talked about enough. The more the public knows and understands, the more likely America is to have policies and elected officials who have our best interests at heart, and that's what my books offer.
The next time you buy best non fiction books to read 2021, check out Curing Medicare, a methodical collection of facts and evidence about why Medicare is not for the benefit of its beneficiaries. Then again, if nonfiction isn't your cup of tea, buy The Adventures of Yadel the Dreidel online for an epic Jewish history book. Alternatively, if you like Civil War related books online, then Three Brothers from Virginiais for you.
The last book to come from this author earned award nominations and a long list of raving reviews, so don't miss January 6th and the Millenial Horde. It's a hilarious read you won't forget!