Shifting Focus from Illness to Health

Running to the emergency room when a chronic condition blows up or reacting to an illness runs as a common theme in the American healthcare system. We are forced into this emergent care or reaction mode to manage the illness or chronic condition. This is at best an inefficient management model or commonly referred to as ‘treating the symptoms and not the causes’.

We are a smart nation and unfortunately the healthcare system that we have established does not reflect that. Smart people typically do not react to everything, they are proactive and prepared. If the healthcare system is to survive the impending growth of the aging population as baby boomers overwhelmingly turn to mid-sixties, it has to take on more wisdom.

Let’s move from a reactive to a proactive system. Let us be more concerned with our health rather than with illnesses. One of the first steps is to focus on our health. Many experts believe that the future of our healthcare lies in our patients. Patients could change their behavior and attitude towards health and become more proactively engaged instead of passively receiving vital stats. The best healthcare is indeed ‘self care’.