This principle is especially applicable in medicine and even more important in cardiovascular and related conditions. I have written in this space for a year about the vastly superior results achieved with optimal medical therapy (OMT) vs usual care—the care that most people receive. When a large health system boasts “We Are the Best Cardiac Care System in the Region”, they usually mean they do the best job of rescuing patients late in their disease in a crisis situation. That is the emphasis in our sickcare system. Patients receive catheterizations, stents, and bypasses, but very few of them receive OMT. If a patient is having a heart attack, a stent is lifesaving. If they are stable—if they have had chest pain with walking two blocks up a hill for six months— a stent does nothing to prevent a heart attack or sudden death. It is worthless. OMT is the best, most sophisticated treatment for artery disease. It prolongs healthy life at lower cost. When health systems brag they have the best cardiac care, that is like a communication company bragging they make the best landline rotary phones. The technologies date from the same era.
That’s why we are building a brand new system that’s outpatient patient centered, cost-conscious, outcome and evidence based early detection and early warning network to promote primary and secondary disease prevention with a goal to eliminate late stage sickness seeking profiteering.
Excellent advice
Acute heart attacks are absolutely preventable if early detection and early warning are available to ALL.
That’s why we are building a brand new system that’s outpatient patient centered, cost-conscious, outcome and evidence based early detection and early warning network to promote primary and secondary disease prevention with a goal to eliminate late stage sickness seeking profiteering.