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Are Doctors Really More Followers than Leaders? What it Means for Healthcare Reform |
Many years ago I was listening to a doctor friend talk about his colleagues and was struck when he said “You know, very few doctors are leaders. They follow each other like sheep. They train us that way in medical school, we are not trained to think for ourselves.” Since that day, I have heard this idea stated repeatedly by those who manage and sell to doctors. Doctors never want to be the first ones to try something, they say. They want everything tested by someone else, someone else to take the risk and confirm that it works before they dive in.
Why is this? Like my doctor friend stated, doctors are trained this way in medical school. Some have said that going to medical school is like getting a lobotomy. Doctors are not trained to think. They are trained to memorize and systematically process information to a conclusion.
If this is true, what does this mean for healthcare reform? It probably means that solutions for our healthcare problems won’t come from doctors. Someone else will determine their fate. If this is true, it will be tragic. Physicians are on the front line and should know better than anyone how to solve this crisis. They either don’t have the time, or the inclination, or like my doctor friend said, are not inclined to be leaders.
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