“The daily unconscious concern of every clinician and practitioner is the weight of continuous decision making–inherently uncertain and lacking full (or sometimes even adequate) information to inform the clinical picture. …Physician education, training, and reimbursement, as well as research designs for clinical studies that physicians depend upon for effective decision making, continue to be focused primarily on an acute-care model that emphasises pharmacologic solutions for complex, chronic problems, leaving the discerning clinician and practitioner without the evidence and tools needed for addressing their patients’ complex needs.”
—21st Century Medicine, The Clinician’s Dilemma
The above excerpt was taken from IFM’s newly completed white paper on the integration of the art and science of medicine, 21st Century Medicine: A New Model for Medical Education and Practice. Providing both the justification for, and a description of, the change that must occur to equip clinicians to adapt successfully to the healthcare demands of the 21st century, this publication serves as a platform to untangle the clinician’s dilemma so prevalent in healthcare today: In the complex, uncertain environment of chronic care, how does one seamlessly integrate both the continuing advances of science and the essential art of medicine into clinical practice?
21st Century Medicine asks and answers the two questions central to the future of medicine:
-How do we develop an effective therapeutic relationship based upon (1) efficacious, reproducible, and personalised clinical applications that are solidly anchored in science, (2) emerging knowledge about the multifactorial causes or chronic disease, and (3) an expanded awareness of the nature of clinical/critical thinking?
-How do we transition from an EBM-based, guideline-driven, prescriptive clinical practice to an individualised, patient-centered approach that captures both the science and the art of medicine?
We urge you to add 21st Century Medicine to your functional medicine toolkit by downloading your complimentary copy of the full document, or click here for an immediate download of The Clinician’s Dilemma
