Do you believe in specialization?

I think specialization has it's place. General practice is a starting point, and a good one if your headache is just stress. But if your headache is rooted in a neurological malfunction or tumor growing in your brain, a general practitioner may not know how to define and treat the real issue, and may waste a lot of your precious time trying to figure it out. I think the world of medicine has grown to need specialization; in the early part of the century, medical knowledge was limited - it was possible for one person or small team to grasp the knowledge and practice ethically. Now, we know a lot more about the human body and the multitudes of diseases, viruses, bacteria, and malfunctions that affect it. It's too much for one person to grasp and use ethically. Medicine has spider-webbed, so now the general practitioner may be able to tell you generally what is wrong, but won't have the knowledge or resources to specify the disorder or treat you. Unfortunately, insurance companies put a little bit of a crooked spin on the whole thing...but that's a whole new issue.

Specialization was required when general practitioners failed to study symptoms accurately. Specialization has been made possible thanks to increasingly hi-technology equipments. However, there is a dark aspect to specialization. The specialists without the aid of equipments are practically hopeless. If their machine fails them, then they just can't handle a problem. In other words specialists have become slaves to technology and their own creativity has taken a beating.

I think it has to do with the law. Too many people want to sue. So doctors have chosen specializations. They become experts in one area of the body. That way they are less likely to get sued and more doctors make more money. Our health insurance sky rockets. The end result will eventually be socialized medicine and then doctors will make less but the insurance companies will be happy. On the other hand, specialization made it possible for Henry Ford to build automobiles at a faster rate and a less expensive price making it available to the masses!The common denominator in all this is money!

I have heard a saying which goes like this " Specialist is a person who knows everything about nothing" Well someone might have said this in a lighter vein maybe, but It really have made me thought. I think that might be true. I believe in generalization rather than specialization. It might be both sides of coin. You might need to have both to some extent, because you can't completely generalize as well as completely specialize. So, we have to strike the right chord and balance between the two.

While I believe there is a need for specialization I also believe we have come to rely on it far too much. Even doctors have come to believe that if the symptoms you describe are beyond there experience they think nothing of passing you off with little thought. The problem I see with specialization is that while it is true they concentrate on one area of expertise it by no means indicates they can handle a give problem. Specialists seem to be the end of the line. You have been referred so there must be something wrong in your specialty and no matter what it takes we will find it. After all the specialist has no one to pass you too. They may consult but that is about it. While there have been many people saved by these doctors that know so much more about a problem there also has been many that have not. So you have to wonder how special they are. I go to a female doctor. I am fortunate to enjoy pretty fair health so only see her once a year. She is a family practioner. However if I have anything that needs attention regardless of what it is off I go to a specialist. She seems like a traffic cop. As a result my wife quit seeing her. She has many health problems and needed someone willing to look at the big picture. Not so long ago doctors were all the specialists they just didn't call themselves that. They had to handle, as best they could, what ever came up. We are so much better off with the knowledge we have today but it brings along with it a false expectation. Who goes into the hospital expecting not to come out alive. We assume, no matter what, that a specialist will fix it. Are we better off? Hmmmmmmm

I believe specialization has it's place (thinking here about the healthcare industry) but we need to exercise some caution and common sense. I think specialists can be very helpful when we have an absolutely CERTAIN diagnosis of a problem... at that point I would rather see someone who has a LOT of experience in dealing with the particular problem I might have. However, specialists are not always very good diagnosticians. Because they have too much training (and perhaps "intellectual investment") in their speciality, they also tend to look at a common set of symptoms, and INTERPRET them through the eyes of their specialty. Thus-- as you say-- your common headache may land you in the hands of a neurosurgeon who's ready to chop part of your brain out to cure your headache... when all you really needed was a bottle of aspirin.

I never go by what a doctor says one hundred percent. What a patient needs to do when they walk through the door to see his doctor is ask questions. Don't let them set you up for a test unless you know beyond the shadow of a doubt what is the purpose of the test. Don't let them tell you in doctor language either. Tell them to tell you so you can understand. I think specialization is needed sometimes but not as often as it is prescribed. Another thing that I do is write down every thing that the doctor has said and when I get home I come to the computer and go to mayoclinic or webmd.com and research what I have been told. I also tell the doctor that I will make a follow-up appointment with him after I have time to think about it and research it. The doctor doesn't like it a lot of times. It is my body so that is just tough for him.