When we care the most, we are at our best as physicians

AMA Leader Commentary. By Cecil B. Wilson, MD, Dec. 11, 2006.

AMA LEADER COMMENTARY

A few words about current events in medical practice

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A message to all AMA members from the chair of the AMA Board of Trustees, Cecil B. Wilson, MD

The holiday season is a time when we celebrate caring. We do that by bringing gifts and greetings to each other and by reaching out to others in need. And it is the "caring principle" that distinguishes the medical profession.

Caring is central to what we as physicians do. Caring and curing describe the profession. And those golden moments when you and I have been at our absolute best have been the very moments when we cared the most. One of our congressional critics has provided the backhanded compliment: "The trouble with doctors is that they just care too much."

To the contrary, I would suggest there is no such thing as caring too much, only caring too little.

In the world of business, the adage is "buyer beware." In our profession, the Holy Grail is to focus on what is best for our patients.

The contrast is stark.

The caring principle is illustrated by Dr. James Akin, who in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina sees patients in an abandoned Lord & Taylor department store, and by Dr. Bryan Bertucci, who cares for patients in a trailer parked in the lot of a shutdown Walmart; both in New Orleans.

It is the legions of American physicians who every year provide free care on mission trips to Third World countries; and who staff volunteer clinics for the needy in our country.

It is the oncologist who spends virtually the entire day sitting with the parents he had just told were losing their infant son to leukemia -- total strangers to him two months ago but now intimate members of a single family of grief.