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OPINION

Letters to the Editor - May 5, 2008

Number doesn't tell whole story of how psychiatrists view health plans - It's up to the woman if a pregnancy creates 1 patient or 2 - EMRs have 2 strikes against them

Number doesn't tell whole story of how psychiatrists view health plans

Regarding "More physicians backing national coverage -- study" (AMNews, April 21): Your article reports on a survey showing that 83% of psychiatrists support national health insurance coverage. It is important to put this in the context of other data.

According to the American Psychiatric Assn., 52% of psychiatrists are not affiliated with any managed care panel. Also, psychiatrists represent the greatest number of specialists who opt out of Medicare. Before readers rush to any conclusion about where psychiatrists stand on issues like "single payer," remember the words of Benjamin Disraeli: There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

--Janis G. Chester, MD, president, American Assn. of Practicing Psychiatrists, Dover, Del.

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It's up to the woman if a pregnancy creates 1 patient or 2

Regarding "Physician's duty to unborn patient precludes an abortion referral" (Letters, March 3): In her letter to the editor regarding abortion, Jeannette P. Spreng, MD, Brunswick, Ohio, writes that abortion "carries a 50% mortality rate."

While it is appropriate to view a pregnant woman as analogous to "two patients" in certain circumstances, this analogy is applicable only so long as the woman in question chooses to continue the pregnancy. A physician is not beholden to the fetus apart from the wishes of the pregnant woman involved. The moment that a woman chooses to terminate a pregnancy the physician has only "one patient."

--Amesh Adalja, MD, Butler, Pa.

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EMRs have 2 strikes against them

Regarding "Selling the bitter EMR pill" (AMNews, April 7): There are two reasons that physicians have not adopted EMRs. The first is that we realize the software has a price point that is too high. The second is that the people who design these systems have no idea how physicians are trained to think. The application does not fit the natural thought process of a physician.

--Mark Lemmons, MD, Camby, Ind.

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