I read about primary care everyday. I read about Direct Primary Care everyday. This is what I do. My other blog (www.authenticmedicine.com) has been going daily for 21 years. Yes, you read that right.
So, I know a little about what I am talking about, and what I am talking about is that those who work for Harvard know NOTHING about Direct Primary Care (and family medicine).
And yet every reporter uses them as their experts.
Recently, I mentioned this guy:
Russell Phillips, director of Harvard Medical School’s Center for Primary Care, says that while concierge medicine has gone a long way in helping physicians manage their workload, earn more money and provide better access, it is not a perfect system. “That reduction in the number of patients—often from nearly 2,000 to 500 to 600—means that many patients are left without primary care physicians at a time of increasing shortages in primary care clinicians,” he says.
Want more? Here’s this article about CrossFit trying to work with primary care and guess where they found a critic?
Dr. Anupam Jena, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, guesses that the program’s affiliation with CrossFit means it will largely attract people who have disposable income and are already fit and health-focused. “It’s really designed for people who are affluent…and who probably would have done just fine anyway,” he says. “I don’t know that that’s the place where we have a primary care problem.”
Good thing Dr. Jena wants to fix the primary care problem. Harvard seems to be all in on this. Take this article, for example:
‘Think big or go home’: Harvard wants to reshape primary care
Wow, Harvard is doing so much to help us. Oh, and don’t forget this:
The 2022 U.S. News and World Report ranking for U.S. medical schools lists Harvard Medical School at No. 1 in research, with its primary care program rising to No. 8, up from last year’s position at No. 10.
Here is my issue:
Harvard Medical School is one of only 10 medical schools in the nation that don’t have a department of family medicine, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. Yale, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, and other elite schools are also among those 10.
This has been updated. Harvard is NOW one of nine medical schools in the United States without a Department of Family Medicine! This was written in January:
Why Harvard Medical School Could Be a Perfect Place to Train Family Medicine Physicians
So, what is my point? Well, until Harvard has a residency program that trains family doctors which may alleviate the primary care shortage then maybe they should shut the f%ck up about it! You can’t know it unless you live it. That goes double for DPC.
No one cares about your theories, pontifications, or predictions if you have no skin in the game. You are hypocrites who sit in an Ivory Tower that just run your mouth.
HOW ABOUT PUTTING YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS?
Start a family medicine program.
And for you reporters who continue to use them for every little news item on family doctors, Direct Primary Care, burnout and physician shortages:
JUST STOP!! DO SOME RESEARCH. DON’T BE LAZY.
May I recommend Julie Gunter, MD who actually went to Harvard (as an undergraduate) but does DPC and now is the president of the Direct Primary Care Alliance? Or Vance Lassey, MD who is VP and taking over for Jule in January. They are great interviews!
Ok, that’s my rant for the day.