Chain Medicine

Interview:
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/08/08/chain-medicine

 

Time was, every doctor in America was the lone practitioner, taking patients and doing medicine by his or her own lights.  A lot has changed.  It’s going to change more, says my guest today, writer and surgeon Atul Gawande.  The new model?

It may be a restaurant chain, the Cheesecake Factory, he says.  A huge menu, lots of outlets, lots of centrally-crafted recipes and control.  “Big Med,” he calls it, with cookie-cutter medicine and tons of central oversight.  It could raise quality and cuts costs.  Or not.

This hour, On Point:  Atul Gawande, on the chain restaurant model for health care.