Clinical Pathways: When Personalized Health Care Goes Off Course

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Clinical Pathways: When Personalized Health Care Goes Off Course
Narrated by David charles,MD.
Think of you and your doctor on a journey maybe you face a basic challenge like a sinus infection or perhaps something more serious like Parkinson's disease are even cancer whatever the case your doctor is there to guide you toward better health he does that by listening to what you’re experiencing taking your medical history conducting an exam and analyzing the results of diagnostic tests putting all this together your doctor creates a treatment path for you it’s a custom design route to get you closer to full health but suppose your treatment path wasn’t so individualized suppose instead that your insurance company tried to restrict the treatment plan advised by your physician in an attempt to force a one-size all treatment path such paths have a variety of names clinical pathways care pathways critical pathways patients on clinical pathways receive predetermined treatment options in a predetermined order the standardized course of care is based on general data about patient and disease types and these pathways are increasingly popular with insurance companies some are excellent and are developed by expert physicians working within their professional societies others are less rigorous and primarily focused on cost-cutting when Clinical Pathways prioritize cost savings instead of individual patients they can have an unpleasant result a one-size-fits-all approach to patient care you see the Clinical Pathways that focused on cost may direct physicians to prescribe cheaper medication as a patient’s primary option this approach can reduce insurance companies expenses but how might it affect you do you still receive individualized care from your doctor or are you just one of the many patients on the clinical pathway each receiving the same low cost drug as the first line of care patient centered healthcare demands a personalized approach to your unique healthcare that means allowing the doctor patients relationship not cost cutting to guide your path to wellness