Today's Practice: Changing the Business of Medicine National Edition Q1 2018 | Page 9

FEATURED SERIES: THE HEALTHCARE OF TOMORROW
Integrative Medicine:
The Future of Medicine.
Peter F. Demitry, MD, MPH | Executive Director, The National Foundation for Integrative Medicine
Imagine, for a moment, a different future for medicine in
the United States, unlike anything you previously consid-
ered. For instance, imagine a new national priority of
‘health’ rather then the current system of focusing on
‘health-care’. Imagine that you could practice medicine
as you envisioned back when you were in medical school.
You remember, that idealistic desire to help your patients
get healthy! Return to that memory for a moment when
you expected to be fairly compensated for your training,
experience, empathy and ability to get your patients
healthy.
It’s coming. Are you ready? There are
paradigm changes on the horizon. Practitioners who
adopt this cutting edge mindset will not only stay
relevant, they will thrive in their profession.
Visualize a different economic engine driving medical
decisions. After all, money seems to drive everything
these days. Consider what the country could do when
the percentage of our economy used for healthcare is
decreased from 18% of our Gross National Product ($3.2
Trillion) down to a more reasonable 7%. Imagine what
we as a nation could do with that extra $1.3 Trillion
dollars in cost avoidance per year. Could you start
safeguarding your children’s economic future? Envision a
time when the annual expenditure would no longer top
$10,000 per US citizen, an expenditure yielding the
lowest clinical return on investment in the world accord-
ing to several independent sources.
TODAY’S PRA C T I C E: C HA NGI NG T HE BUS I NES S OF M EDI CINE
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