I was chatting to a friend the other day and I mentioned that we’re starting a 2-week unit on nutrition and metabolism. She was shocked to find out that in medical school we were only going to be spending a fortnight on what should be the cornerstone of healthcare.
But let’s put it in perspective: if I told you I also did a 5-week unit on cardiology, would you be disappointed to know I’m not prepared to do open heart surgery? In the same way, this unit is not about to make me a nutritionist or preventative medicine expert in any sense of the word.
The role of doctors is specifically to diagnose and treat illness. Practicing physicians go through an additional 3-7 years of training after they get an MD to make sure they know everything about THEIR field of medicine but that doesn’t mean they know everything there is to know about preventative healthcare.
The good news is, doctors are not the only healthcare professionals out there!
THAT'S WHY PUBLIC HEALTH MATTERS
More epidemiologists! More nutritionist! More public health specialists! More biostatisticians! — Is it too radical to say defund medicine??
As much as we value the ability to respond to disease, 2020 has made it REAL clear it’s as equally important to put effort towards preventing disease from occurring in the first place. A major part of ultimately reducing the cost of healthcare is to place more emphasis on improving health outcomes and containing disease before you need to book an emergency doctor appointment!
When we consider the efforts and finances being put into medicine, let’s not neglect the healthcare workers who care for us outside of the hospital.
Stepping off my soapbox for now but I’d love to hear your thoughts too!
TLDR: Preventative medicine is super important, let’s make public health a priority!!
Originially posted to Instagram on September 10, 2020
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