Nothing Entered Yet

In "Do You Believe Doctors Are Systems, My Friends?", Shaywitz argues that medical care should not be a system, but rather have a separate solution that continues to include individuality. Throughout the article, Shaywitz only critiques Gawande's ideals by telling his audience that a system will eventually end the purpose of medicine. Shaywitz, not once in the article offers an alternative solution. For having "respect for the practice of medicine"(Shaywitz 2), he does not provide enough information to say that a system will be detrimental to a patient's care. Is that not the purpose of Gawande's book? In this way his credibility is lost, and therefore I can not agree with his viewpoints. Shaywitz goes on to say that, "the individual relationship between physician and patient can be of remarkable therapeutic value" (Shaywitz 1). His argument here is that with a system in place, patients will not be able to receive the individualistic care. It is absurd for Shaywitz to argue this because, The doctors' personalities or desire to aid will not vanish as soon as a system is in place. The system is simply to offer the best care for a person. In the book "Better", Gawande makes it clear to the reader that several processes of medical care are failing because there are no clear guidelines. For example, a patient is at risk for being naked with a doctor, and the doctor is at risk of false accusations. The lack of guidelines is the reason doctors have to build their own individual approach to appropriating this. This flexibility has brought several disturbances in the work field. Individuality is not alleviating the matter, but rather making it difficult on doctors. Additionally, It is not fair for Shaywitz to argue that at some point physicians will no longer be needed with a system in place without considering the skill required of a doctor to successfully cure something as complex as the human body. If anything, the systems being placed will lead to a demand for more precision and diligence. The doctors will not only have to know to do the procedures but know extra guidelines to ensure that it is right. Gawande offers insight to the progress of a simple guideline implementation in his Ted Talk, "How Do We Heal Medicine". The evidence is clear. Shaywitz provides only assumptions that serve no purpose when the true goal is to provide better care. Systems do not take away from the individual performing the care but rather add comfort to the patient and doctor that tasks are being made to the best it can be. All care should be at best, there is a human life on the line. After all, are you going to the doctor's office to feel comforted (anyone can comfort you) or are you going to the doctor's office to be cured? 

Works Cited

Gawande, Atul. Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance. New York: Metropolitan, 2007. Print.

Shaywitz, David. "Do You Believe Doctors Are Systems, My Friends?"Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 6 Aug. 2012. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.