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Notes from a doctor with a laptop, a housecall bag and a fountain pen. Day-to day and career reflections from a 1979 Medical School graduate practicing on Maine's Canadian border.

Quick Takes

Mental Health Help or Systems Change for Burnout? The Answer Should be Obvious!

The AMA needs to go away

Hans Duvefelt, MD

Apr 1, 2023

Victor Frankl did his own mental health reframing in the concentration camp, but it was the allied forces who freed him and the other surviving prisoners. Our side never contemplated sending therapists to help the Jews cope with their captivity. But that is exactly what the AMA is doing.

Physicians today are captives of the computer systems that regulate their every move, monitor their performance and restrict their right to be off duty by bombarding them with an uninterrupted flow of data.

I joined the AMA in residency, in part to buy discounted insurance through them and in part to belong to an organization I thought would protect my interest. In retrospect, 40 years later, it is clear that they never did.

Do we need a new organization to take their place, since they have obviously failed to protect our interests? I believe we do.

This morning’s email newsletter headline almost made me choke on my coffee. Read it and weep.