Response to Dr. Barfield's Approach to Medicine

    In the interview “The Miracle in Front of You” Dr. Raymond Barfield describes the main issues he sees with the way the medical field is running right now. As a pediatric-oncologist he argues that the way that the medical field is run is not very ethical. He believes that the culture of the way hospitals are run is very toxic and dehumanizing. I agree with Dr. Raymond’s claims that we should adjust the way people in the medical field are trained and that we should humanize the hospital experience more. Doctors should at the very least be more experienced when it comes to communicating with patients to provide a better medical experience.
    On page 12 of the interview Dr. Raymond states “Modern medicine discourages doctors from getting to know the human beings they are treating … It’s not that the institution doesn’t care about humanity; it’s that the institution doesn’t know humanity.” In other words the medical culture has turned a hospital from a place where they treat people to a business where there is no higher level human connection. They are fostering an environment where there is a big gap of understanding between doctor and patient resulting in instances where cannot be provided in the best way possible. On page 19 of the Interview Dr.Raymond says “I tell medical students to talk to patients the way they do to people outside the hospital. When they fall into medical language, it tends to confuse instead of clarify. The student will say, “The patient is a twelve-year-old Caucasian male who presented with sinus tachycardia . . . ,” et cetera. Then I will say to the patient, “Hey, Johnny, sounds like your heart was beating pretty fast.’”As we can see this provides a clearer understanding to the patient about what is going on with them and can lead to better care since there is better communication between the patient and the doctor there is less of a feeling of alienation between them.