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Scott Becker - We Need More Doctors 10-1-26 · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  - This is Scott Becker with the Beckers HealthCare
• 0:03
  - podcast.
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  - Today's discussion is we need more doctors.
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  - So so here's the context. We're huge fans
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  - of our physician community.
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  - We believe... I believe that we badly need
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  - more specialists and more doctors.
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  - We have horrendous shortages in many areas.
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  - This is absolutely horrible when you or a
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  - family member has a complex issue.
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  - It's absolutely horrendous in behavioral health too where
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  - we're so short psychiatrists
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  - and and
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  - and psychologists.
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  - I'm increasingly annoyed in our physician societies in
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  - two core places, and and I get pushback
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  - from physicians this.
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  - You know, first, I saw several physician societies
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  - just issue a press release essentially saying that
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  - we need to slow down the use of
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  - AI in medicine.
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  - We're at a spot where quite frankly... I
• 0:52
  - I don't know if I agree or disagree,
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  - but our physician community is so overwhelmed, and
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  - we are so short providers
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  - that I viewed the least as incredibly territorial
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  - and self serving.
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  - Not helpful.
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  - I get the point, but we need more
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  - doctors, and we need technologies too. And slowing
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  - down this evolution is a bad, bad idea.
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  - Second...
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  - And here's where I think I'm probably more
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  - upset with the physician societies
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  - and and and some physicians.
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  - The physician societies seem so against shortening the
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  - pathway to become a physician
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  - that by necessity, in some places for good
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  - and some places for bad, we're going to
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  - end up by default with a huge amount
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  - of work here provided by nurse practitioners,
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  - PAs, and CRNAs.
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  - What what... What's happened now is the medical
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  - education path is four years of college,
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  - four years of medical school, then four years
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  - of residency, and often a fellowship.
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  - So what's happened, it's harder and harder to
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  - get a great deal of the best and
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  - brightest to go down that path. There's no
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  - question in my mind that that total path
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  - of twelve years
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  - could probably be shortened to
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  - ten
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  - or nine or eight years. In fact, in
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  - other countries, people go right to medical school
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  - out of high school, and they end up
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  - shortening that path by four years. Even in
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  - our country, we used to have the six
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  - year premed programs where people combined college and
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  - medical school into six years, cutting off two
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  - years of the program.
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  - I'm also sure we cut off the fourth
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  - year of medical school without that much harm
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  - and at least six months of residency without
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  - that much harm, but instead we're making it
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  - longer and longer.
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  - What this is leading to... Now I was
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  - in a discussion today with a physician,
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  - so upset that CRNAs are doing more of
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  - the work than anesthesiologist,
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  - But you can't have it both way. You
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  - can't have a fourteen year training path for
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  - anesthesiologists,
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  - have more CRNAs produced each year.
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  - Right now, we've got 62,000 or so CRNAs
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  - in the country, 51,000 or so anesthesiologists.
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  - You you can't have both ways. You can't
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  - make it really hard to become an anesthesiologist
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  - and then be upset when the work moves
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  - someplace else. It's absolutely ass backwards. I think
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  - the professional societies have a lot of blame
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  - in this. I think they've gotta get on
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  - board with trying to make it a little
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  - bit easier to become a physician so we
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  - get the best and brightest constantly into medicine.
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  - Thank you for listening to the Becker's Healthcare
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  - podcast. We hope you enjoy this. Thank you
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  - so much.