Show notes
There has been no shortage of people or schemes to fix the US health care industry. US medicine consistently fails to deliver quality care at affordable prices and manages to irritate both doctors and patients alike. Politicians and think tanks come up with grandiose plans every day to treat what plagues the system. Likewise, big tech companies like Apple are now entering the fray and bringing their technology as solutions.
Unfortunately for Apple (and its tech cousins like Amazon), the health space is extremely complicated and can't be solved simply using technology. Its attempt to "make it" flopped just as other ventures by tech companies have in the past. The common thread in all of those is the belief that they could replace doctors.
Doctors Make it Work, Not Expensive
A common misconception found at tech companies like Apple is that people are easy to replace with algorithms and gadgets. But humans aren't machines so you can't always predict how they will behave. Even with sophisticated devices monitoring heart rate, blood pressure, etc. that information is not useful in isolation. You must have someone who can figure out if any of the data is important based on examination, intuition, and experience that can't be found in any algorithm.
Also, the companies believe that by removing the physician, they will find the cost savings they need to cut costs and deliver an equivalent service. But anyone who has been paying attention (or looked at expenses in medicine) will find that doctors are one of the smallest parts of the cost equation. They are easily surpassed by imaging, laboratories, pharmaceuticals and the biggest and baddest of them all - administrative. Middle men and the third party payor system in general are what are driving the majority of price inflation in health care.
How to Really Solve the Shortage on Care - Hint: It's not getting rid of doctors
My guest today is Dr. Doug Farrago, founding member of the DPC Alliance, newly retired direct primary care doctor, author of books on how to start your own DPC practice, and inventor of the knee saver for catchers and the cryo helmet for sufferers of migraines and concussions. Dr. Farrago points out the most obvious flaw in the plan from these tech companies - data is only as useful as the one applying it. Just as it wouldn't be recommended to get random batteries of tests to arrive at diagnoses, accumulating massive amounts of vital signs or rhythm data is just as useless without the context provided.
A good example is familiar to any doctor who has ever ordered a chest x-ray. When you get the reading from the radiologist, their diagnosis of the problem is dependent on the history of the patient. Maybe that fluffy infiltrate is extra fluid, or pneumonia, or blood. You need to correlate what is going on to get the most out of that film. Without a correlation, it is just a random test that may or may not be significant.
The Solution? Direct Primary Care
So what is the solution to the cost and quality problem facing primary care in medicine? Dr. Farrago (and many others whom I've spoken with here, here, here, and here) is direct primary care. The personal membership based relationship between a doctor and patient without insurance or any of the middle men allows for the best care. It is affordable and allows the doctor to use his or her intuition and clinical judgment based on their prior relationship with that patient and their previous health history. That's why Dr. Farrago thinks DPC is the clearest solution to what is plaguing us - not some new piece of tech. Tech are just tools that the clinician can use - they can't replace a human touch, physical exam, and experience.
Dr. Doug Farrago is a recently retired DPC physician previously of Forest Direct Primary Care. He is the writer at Authentic Medicine and DPC News. He is the author of many books on DPC and the inventor of the Cryo Helmet and knee saver for baseball catchers.
show notes
Episode 135: Today's show
Apple Can't Even Get Primary Care Right This is the article we discussed focusing on Apple's failure getting into the primary care space.
DPC News: This is a great resource for those interested in what is going on in direct primary care. A news accumulator with some original content.
Authentic Medicine: Dr. Farrago's blog of 20 years where he has commented on medicine.
DPC Alliance: This is an organization founded by Dr. Farrago that is committed to helping DPC doctors organize and learn from each other to become successful clinicians and business men and women.
LinkedIn for Doug Farrago
Episode 002: Dr. Amat describes why she went into DPC.
Episode 045: Dr. Neuhofel explains what it was like starting one of the first DPC practices in the country.
Episode 049: Dr. Gross describes how DPC is a cornerstone for rebuilding our health care system.
Episode 067: Dr. Umbehr speaks about the resources he has created to help DPC docs be successful in their new practice model.
Locum Story: Today's sponsor for the show is Locum Story and how they help doctors find locum tenens positions.s
Doctor Podcast Network: The home for the Paradocs and a number of other physician based podcasts.
Top 20 Physicians Podcasts
Made Simply Web Site Creations: This is the great, affordable website service that built my wife's podcast site. I cannot recommend this company more to someone looking for creating a website.
Always Andy's Mom: Home of my wife, Marcy's, podcast for parents grieving or those looking to help them.
YouTube for Paradocs: Here you can watch the video of my late son singing his solo on the Paradocs YouTube page.
Patreon - Become a show supporter today and visit my Patreon page for extra bonus material. Every dollar raised goes towards the production and promotion of the show.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay Connected
