I’m writing on behalf of a dear friend Richard Douglass. Richard has been asked by Cambridge Scholars to write a book about the history and evolution of the US health care system and why our way if doing medical care in the US is much more expensive than any other nation while our outcomes are usually average. He is an Emeritus Professor in Health Administration and Policy and has 54 years of experience.
One highlight of the book is to use cases to illustrate system failures to patients and communities. This includes our failure to focus on primary prevention in lieu of treatment, dependence on the most expensive drugs without always having evidence of superior efficacy, access or delays in diagnosis, issues of justice and inclusion that lead to disparities, and the relative ignorance of most people about the medical care system upon which we depend. Related issues are of interest, such as the distribution of specialists and resources that can affect decisions about where, or even if, medical care is sought.
Another issue of importance is the presence or absence of support for caregivers and the consequences of poor levels of caregiver support.
If you have had an experience that illustrates a system failure in finance, communications, inter-state insurance complications, quality of care assurance, access justice or other issues he would like to hear your story. PM me and I will connect you. He is looking for 12-20 highly representative case illustrations for the book to be published next year by Cambridge Scholars in the U.K.
