Today's fight for tort reform will ensure care in future

AMA Leader Commentary. By Yank D. Coble Jr., MD May 19, 2003.

AMA LEADER COMMENTARY

A few words about current events in medical practice

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At the recent annual meeting of the board of directors of Research!America, National Institutes of Health Director Elias Zerhouni, MD, described his greatest fear for the future of medicine.

What keeps him awake at night is not funding levels for the institutes, but fear that promising students are avoiding careers in medicine and medical research.

If current trends continue, the nightmare of Dr. Zerhouni -- and of all who care about the quality of American medicine -- could become a grim reality. He worries that NIH won't have enough physician-scientists to fill its ranks and to advance its research mission. We all worry that American medicine may no longer be the magnet it has been for America's best and brightest.

The stakes are high. Studies show that Americans in the 1970s and '80s valued increases in life expectancy alone at $57 trillion dollars.

That's an astounding number, and it doesn't even measure improved quality of life or productivity. The coming century holds even more promise: vaccines for cancer, pharmacogenetics, artificial organs, virtual surgery.

There has been no better time than today to be a medical scientist doing research, a physician providing care or teaching, or a patient reaping the benefits. Yet many physicians and patients don't feel that way. Neither do many young people who considered a medical career -- then reconsidered.

A study in JAMA last September found medical school applications are down 30% since 1996. This decline in interest persists even in the face of an economic downturn, when graduate medical programs usually flourish.