Andrew Weil -- "... How can we improve medical care so that it's worth extending it to more people? In other words, how can we create a health care system that helps people become and stay healthy? I have argued for years that we do not have a health care system in America. We have a disease-management system."
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April 9, 2012 - By the late 1940s we knew a great deal about acute infectious diseases. We understood that these diseases could be identified by the specific microorganisms that caused them and that they had a definite course. Further, we knew that they were accompanied by high fever, internal shivering, pain, skin eruptions or some other acute symptoms. It was also understood that these diseases could be reduced or even eliminated if an appropriate vaccine was found that would prepare the body to fend off the microorganism.
April 2, 2012 - Our health care system has been focused on acute care since its inception however the vast majority of illness these days is chronic rather than acute. Gradually, everyone is beginning to realize that hospitals can no longer be the core of the health care system if we are to respond appropriately.
March 22, 2012 - From the Patients’ Association of Canada (PAC) we can do little but applaud yesterday’s publication by Cancer Care Ontario and Public Health Ontario of Taking Action to Prevent Chronic Disease: Recommendations for a Healthier Ontario. They have recognized that the great killers today are no longer the acute infectious diseases of yesteryear which were caused by identifiable microorganisms, but the slowly progressing chronic conditions which are affected by social and environmental factors.
February 17, 2012 - The Drummond Report recognizes that medical problems have shifted from acute (and often infectious) diseases to long term chronic conditions. Because the system remains dedicated to acute aspects of disease it has spawned a growing number of expert-based services and medical specialties that have fragmented the system and made it difficult to provide the continuity of care demanded by chronic conditions.
How Patients can Improve the Healthcare System