Escape Fire

The news network CNN did an outstanding two hour film-documentary on the status of the U.S. healthcare system this weekend. The film makers had been filming since as early as 2009, so this may explain why there seems to be some gaps early in part of the film's presentation . That is minor in comparison to "Obamacare"(ACA) becoming law, now. Nevertheless, the documentary addressed many pressing questions that still are pertinent about America's ailing healthcare system. The film shows the evermore burdensome system taxing medical doctors by stretching them to the limit and not ever billing for physicians extra "non-billable" time educating and informing the patient and their families about prevention. The value of physicians "going that extra mile" by primary care doctors is exacerating who spend so much time to really make a difference by preventing acute and chronic disease with prevention. The Medical Industiral Complex or MIC doesn't reward doctors for doing this and therefore patients pay the price in the end. The MIC , which is built up of the pharmaceutical industry, the HMO industry, the health policy lobbyist, medical device makers, medical preofessional lobbying groups and government regulators, pressure doctors to see a heavy load of patients then pay a price with increasing the chance a medical malpractice and higher liability costs. Doctors feel not only stressed-out by this system but very vulnerable. The system is ripe for many numberous mistakes and duplicity that taxes the system more and making costs go up further. If the average American worker doesn't have time to go to workout nor the extra money to pay for expensive health clubs and workout equipment what are the solutions for an out of control "sick society" that rewards disease through expensive healthcare costs? Lifestyle prevention programs such as a worksite healthcare promotion done by numerous corporations such as Safeway have shown to be very beneficial. Japanese corporations started getting employees to do morning exercises and calisthenics that showed an improvement in productivity, less sick days and more commaradarie. Today, many corporations reward their employees with health savings benefits when their health report improves. Many companies are buidling on and off campus state-of-the -art fitness facilites that allow their worker to utilize. By improving health the bottomline of a company improves and sick days are reduced which helps the company get better results. Other components of this are nutritional education sessions and improved commecary food. By educating workers on what they eat and teaching them about BMI(body mass index), workers are more careful and concerned about their weight and now have the health incentive of going to health spas or vacations that are filled with swimming, tennis, and parks. But, a new wave of how to control both the costs of health and bad lifestyle behavior may be the new "nano-health" gadgets. Numerous gadgets with built-in sensors that are able to read blood pressure, perform an ECG, x-ray , echocardiogram, count calories, count the number calories you burn, count the number of chews per bite of a meal, read brain waves and sleep patterns are now available(see The Human-Computer Digital Interface at http://nanonutrition360@blogspot.com) . Companies have apps that can be on your smart phone, your tablet or lap top that can assist the clinician in real time how to adjust a patient's metabolic state. The FDA has also approved a computer chip that digitally allows drugs to be delivered more accurately as well. One day you will be able to put your hand on your smart device and it will sense your blood's vitals and blood chemistry at one time that will feed to a main database at the physician's office. That computer will have all algorithims of norm and disease contingencies, any data not within normal limits will be alerted to the physician. Your interface with the computer will be your "only" interface with a doctor unless your data is well out of norm . Regular scheduled times of placing your hand on your laptop, tablet or smart phone will be done to predetermine your risks, metabolism, your potential costs to over use of the healthcare system or predictability to utilization of drugs, doctors, nurses or laboratory use will be already programmed. The data will be collected and utilized by public health agencies to predict any epeidemic or trend arising and how to better guide the public with awareness to avert disease and prevent illness. Digital technologies that allow wearable gadgets to work as pedometers, food chewing monitors, sleep and brain wave biofeed back monitors can be used commercially in the public as a means of collecting health data. Real time data can be fed back to the patient from the doctor, physician and 3rd party insurer to determine risk, metabolism and cost to the health plan to evert and prevent over-utilization. We are alredy seeing where robotic arm surgery done remotely will be used in the operating room as well.Doctors need a releif and technology with digital gadets and sophisticated computers will have to play a major role in monitoring for prevention as well as acute and chronic disease. If lifesytle can be modified with the use of digital technology , perhaps billions of dollars can be saved in acute over-utilization of procedures on the expense of chronic care treatment in chronic disease. As preventive lifestyle methods such as giving workers access to regular exercise, giving nutritional support and counseling, discussing vitamin/supplements, and promoting taking personal responsibility with personal reliance can all have a super effect to reduce seveal billions of dollars that are used unnecessarily to the tune of over $300 Billion annually. This is pure calculated waste. Similar approaches can be done by getting the foods and beverage industry as well as restaurant industry to realize what impact ingredients they use can have by putting more organic components in their products. The medical system is about to hit a bubble that is on the verge of bursting; only lifestyle prevention methods with health digital technology(biomed gadgets) are our best hopes of addressing the "tsunami" of a serious crash on the "shores" of the system occuring in the next few years which will consist of a massive wave of good doctors leaving medical practice due to an even higher rate of medical malpractice, higher rates of drug mistakes, unqualified personel trying to do what only trained physicians can do, a continued extremely rising higher rates of insurance premiums and an extremely higher rate of obesity and related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer which will overburden the system even further. It is important to strike while the iron is hot! Dr. Marcus Wells is an Internist with a MPH in occupational and environmental medicine from Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health. Dr. Wells was a former fellow(clincial associate) at the National Institutes of Health at the National Heart Lung, Blood Institute which is a division of the U.S. Health and Human Serivices. Dr. Wells also served in the U.S. Public Health Service.