Article Figures & Data
Tables
Transactional Personalized Data gathering and entry Synthesizing data from diverse sources Most preventive carea Customizing care for individual patients Guideline-based disease managementa Adjudicating competing needs of multiple conditions Disease-specific patient education Negotiating individual treatment plans and agreeing upon expected outcomes Documentation of care Performing procedures and managing complications Coding, billing, and prior authorization tasks Advocating for individual patients ↵a Some preventive care and guideline-based disease management require shared decision making (eg, screening for prostate cancer, choice of medication) and are therefore personalized care.
Additional Files
The Article in Brief
From Transactional Tasks to Personalized Care: A New Vision of Physicians' Roles
David B. Reuben , and colleagues
Background Changes in health care delivery have affected the work that physicians perform and, in turn, their satisfaction. This essay suggests steps that can be taken to align the current and future practice of medicine with the professional mission that motivates physicians and creates satisfaction.
What This Study Found Physicians should reduce their roles in transactional aspects of care, such as gathering and entering data, providing disease-specific patient education, and providing most preventive care. Instead, such duties should be filled by other members of the health care team with complementary skills, leaving physicians to diagnose and help patients meet personal goals and objectives. Physicians would provide personalized care by synthesizing data from diverse, often discordant sources; adjudicating the competing needs of multiple conditions; adjusting patients' treatment plans to align with their goals and preferences; and advocating for patients in a complicated, fragmented health care environment. To make this approach a reality, changes would need to occur on multiple levels including health care organization and delivery, technology, reimbursement, medical education, and practice and physician "buy-in."
Implications
- The authors state that their vision would meet the needs of patients and society while closing the gap between physicians' intended patient care mission and their current transactional roles. In the process, they explain, physicians could discover joy, purpose, and meaning in their work.
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