Healthcare and Medical Care Are Not the Same
The Difference is Very Important
This is the 9th article in a series on America’s dysfunctional healthcare system. Here is a link to the last article.
When I was admitted to medical school, a close friend of my parents gave me a reproduction of a profoundly moving painting called The Doctor, which was painted in 1887 by Sir Luke Fildes and is currently hanging in the Tate Museum in London. The image shows a child lying on two chairs in a humble home. The doctor sits nearby, looking at her intently. On an adjacent table are a mortar and pestle, presumably used to create a medication. The mother sits at a table behind the child, her head down in her hands, probably sobbing. The father stands beside her with his hand on her shoulder, offering her comfort. The power of the painting is the gaze of the doctor on his patient. Now is the place, the time, the person — he has no other thoughts or concerns except to assist her back to health if he possibly can. We do not know the medical problem, but we can infer it is serious. And we do not know the outcome, although there may be a clue because through the window comes a faint ray of light.
I did not fully appreciate the implications of this work of art when I first received it, but I came to understand that this physician was a healer. He had listened; he was nonjudgmental…
