Current trends in Western Allopathic patient treatment necessitate that those seeking relief from their particular health issues first visit a Primary Care Physician (PCP) or general family internal medical professional. If this initial appointment requires a diagnosis, a variety of specialists may be needed to focus on and schedule tests related specifically to their refined training in their chosen specialty. This specificity of training for doctors, specializing in their chosen field, results in the fragmentation of treatment. A cardiologist may not know their patient's comprehensive medical history. Often it is left to the patient to know that it is imperative to provide a medical specialist with the necessary information that may impact the diagnosis and treatment of a specific condition or multiple conditions (including past medical procedures and prescription medications) when multiple health conditions are being assessed by multiple specialists. Patients that rely on the specialist to study their medical history are often expected to provide a general summary of their medical conditions and history before their initial appointment. There is an inherent danger in this practice. A patient may not be thorough for any number of reasons and omit health conditions or medications and supplements on their initial medical forms that may have a serious impact on the diagnosis and treatment by a specialist.
Current technology makes it possible for a patient's medical history, including tests, treatments and medications, to be collected and available for any specialist to easily study before the office visit. Instead, the current experience for patients usually requires that the patient provide their medical history and tests before their first visit to the assigned or selected specialist. Additionally, if multiple medical specialists are required for complicated health issues the patient is best advised to provide each doctor with all previous tests and results, such as x-ray, MRI and CAT scan negatives and written diagnostic test results. Often, as more diagnostic tests are performed, an ailing patient is expected to carry the accumulated previous tests and related materials to additional specialists. This can become a severe burden on an already suffering patient.
A NOTE ABOUT THE SECURITY AND PRIVACY OF A PATIENT'S MEDICAL HISTORY
Medical practices are constantly updating their internal privacy policies. Common concerns about what patient information is shared with various specialists center around the use and abuse of patient records. Pharmaceutical and Insurance Companies and medical facilities may use confidential shared patient information to deny treatment or coverage based on a patient's records. A common example of this is the abuse by insurance companies using pre-existing conditions to deny coverage to ailing patients. This example is just the surface of the abuse of a patient's medical history and records. The battle between greed and profit-centered treatment decisions versus fair and unbiased compassionate care is ongoing. To complicate matters it is a little known fact that a majority of members of the Big Pharma cartel, from the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services, to the Pharmaceutical and Insurance Companies, Medical Practices and Medical Specialists collect comprehensive data about a patient using the patient's medical records and history. The privacy policies of specific medical facilities are not sufficiently monitored to ensure that a patient's medical records and history are enforced. As has been demonstrated in other forums where privacy and confidentiality are promised but not adhered to, such as megalithic conglomerates like Facebook, privacy and confidentiality are virtually non-existent. That said, there is little to nothing that a patient can do to protect the confidentiality and privacy of their records. This falls under the category of patient abuse by the methods, decisions and actions of the cartel referred to as Big Pharma. Since this important issue is, and will be, ongoing, patients must persevere in their efforts to find suitable and effective medical services in spite of this battle between greed and profit-centered medical coverage versus fair and compassionate medical treatment and fair financial costs. The availability of a patient 'dossier', irrespective of the current HIPAA (Health Insurance and Accountability Act) law is an inevitable outcome in this new age of the 'internet of everything'. The 'reward' for a comprehensive centralized database to inform treatment specialists of a patient's records outweighs the 'risk' of abuse of a patient's medical history, to use the rationalization scheme which Big Pharma employs to promote, sell, and prescribe drugs which have sometimes very dangerous side-effects.
AVAILABILTY OF MEDICAL SPECIALISTS AND TIMELY DIAGNOSTICS AND TREATMENTS
The mainstream community of insured patients often experience delays in scheduling necessary, and sometimes urgent diagnostics and treatment. This is often the case when patients with complicated and multiple serious health problems must find the necessary medical specialists to ascertain their health needs in an efficient and timely manner. Appointment availability, various Insurance Company rules for approval or denial of procedures required or requested by doctors, and ancillary needs such as prescription medications, can have a demoralizing and frustrating effect on an already stressed patient.
DOCTOR SHOPPING
(NOTE: The term 'doctor shopping' is currently used to identify individuals who make appointments with multiple doctors to get a variety of powerful prescription medications that can provide a 'high' for the individual, or for obtaining these drugs to sell on the street. The individuals who do this sort of doctor shopping are possibly addicts, or those seeking to profit from the black market sales of the prescribed drugs being solicited. In this discussion the term 'doctor shopping' is defined very differently. For the purpose of this discussion 'doctor shopping' refers to making as many appointments as are necessary to find Primary Care Doctors or internists, and various medical specialists that satisfy the patient's need to be treated respectfully and also as a partner in the direction and choice of treatments available.)
Although there are many caring and compassionate medical professionals there is also an abundance of doctors and specialists who are motivated by profit over compassionate healthcare. Finding the right partnership between a patient and their doctor can often be very frustrating. A patient is best served to seek a different doctor or specialist when she or he encounters a medical professional who is either rude, disinterested or unwilling to allow the patient to be a partner in the creation of a health regimen that is safe, efficient and likely to address the patient's health issues.
SUMMARY AND A NOTE ABOUT THE INTENT OF THIS POST
As the author of these posts my personal experiences in dealing with multiple health issues has caused me to assess and adjust my level of trust of the Western Healthcare paradigm. I am referring to severe spinal problems as a result of a failed lumbosacral 3 level fusion surgery, and other health issues, primarily sensory axonal polyneuropathy (a nerve disease that is primarily autonomic/parasympathetic)* arising out of excessive and toxic dosing of multiple prescriptions for chronic and acute pain (some prescribed medications being very addictive). The excessive dosing of addictive pharmaceuticals to combat the aftereffects of the failed major spinal surgery and resultant severe pain, anxiety, insomnia and depression led me to carefully wean off of the excessive toxic doses of these pharmaceuticals and do research to find a safer and more holistic healthcare regimen. My research included understanding the experiences of patients like myself who had similar problems, as addressed in this post, and reinforced my observations and conclusions regarding the content of this post. The formulation of my research included studying anatomy, herbal remedies, alternative schools of medicine, and joining numerous health-related forums to communicate with and read about the experiences of many other patients who have experienced similar problems in their efforts to find suitable, fair and safe treatment by doctors and medical specialists. As I found success in my self-styled health regimen, with the cooperation and guidance by a fair and compassionate primary medical healthcare internist (MD), I developed an understanding of the 'big picture' with respect to the Western Allopathic treatment regimen, and developed the ideology and philosophy of Comprehensive Holistics.
It must be the responsibility of each patient to be assertive and educated about their medical problems. This post seeks to point out some major issues in the overall treatment by the medical and related communities that will ultimately determine the health regimen one accepts to address and hopefully resolve individual health conditions.
COMPREHENSIVE HOLISTICS (comprehensiveholistics.com) seeks to address many topics from multiple sources to assist the members of the community of those suffering serious medical issues to understand that in addition to the Western Medical Healthcare paradigm there are other alternative and supplementary health procedures and practices which, when combined into a working and thorough body and mind health regimen, may provide a more comprehensive treatment regimen for difficult to severe health issues. The home page of the Comprehensive Holistics site has a table that generalizes how there is a merging of Western and Eastern health modalities that together can provide a new healthcare paradigm.
ONE FINAL OBSERVATION
My health-related experiences and my research have caused me to assess the current Western Medical paradigm. My observations should not cause the reader to conclude that all doctors and medical specialists are motivated by greed and profit. When I collectively refer to Big Pharma, or the Big Pharma cartel, I am referring to many of the major Pharmaceutical Companies, Insurance Companies and oversight regulatory agencies that often appear to promote the kind of medical behavior which devalues the patient and promotes and rewards doctors who practice medicine for greed and profit over compassionate care.
There are as many deeply committed, caring and compassionate medical professionals as there are irresponsible and improperly motivated doctors and specialists. Ultimately it is our responsibility as individual patients to strive to find the health regimen that best helps heal or manage our often serious health issues as safely as possible. As patients, we must advocate for appropriate and humane healthcare and stand up to the corruption of the medical industry and its partners. As patients we must insist that we be treated as partners in our choices in developing our treatment regimens. As patient advocates, we must insist on a new healthcare agenda. The current agenda of the special interests involved in the corruption of doctors and practices must be faced and addressed. Our collective well-being as a culture is suffering from its own 'corporate health problems' and how we, as patients, address the issues in this post will determine if the current practices and agendas, as promoted by regulatory bodies, such as the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services, will persist or be replaced with a new healthcare paradigm, a paradigm which rewards the members of the Big Pharma cartel while offering a balanced, fair and affordable approach to healing each of us as individuals and all of us as a culture.
*(from the website study.com)
The peripheral nervous system is the extensive network of nerves that extends throughout the entire body. These nerves provide a connection between body parts and the central nervous system, which is the brain and spinal cord.
The autonomic nervous system is responsible for controlling bodily processes that are not under our own voluntary control. Under normal circumstances, the parasympathetic division of the ANS (autonomic nervous system) is the most active.
The somatic nervous system is responsible for movement of voluntary muscles. This system carries nerve impulses back and forth between the central nervous system, which is the brain and the spinal cord, and the skeletal muscles, skin, and sensory organs.
In my experience my nerve disease primarily effects the non-voluntary functions of my nervous system (autonomic/parasympathetic nervous system) and, to a lesser degree, the voluntary functions (somatic nervous system).
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