The conceptually-oriented physician

This article is based on the authors' book "Physician or Magician: The Myths and Realities of Patient Care" (McGraw Hill and Hemisphere, 1978). In this paper, the authors contend that the main problem confronting medical practice and medical education today is that there is no consensus on what physicians should be doing. Should they be technologists or should they be conceptually-oriented? The authors further state that these two types of physicians are trained in different approaches to problem solving. They conclude by saying that both types of physicians are needed if the quality of patient care is to improve while containing cost, but that the conceptually-oriented physician--the primary physician--should be in charge of all treatment patients receive. This is because the primary physicians as well as the Cartesian approach. Therefore, they would be better able to determine the risks and benefits to each patient of various technological regimens.