Dr. Kathy L. Minter MD

Professional Statement

We were trained in an era when the best medicine was the least medicine. We recognize that modern scientific medicine is at times able to diagnose, treat, and …

We were trained in an era when the best medicine was the least medicine. We recognize that modern scientific medicine is at times able to diagnose, treat, and cure conditions that defied our efforts in the past. We also recognize that most testing and treatments, directly or indirectly, carry the danger of harming people. We seek the balance whereby we do everything that is necessary and helpful, and nothing that is useless or harmful.

Patients used to be just people, who made their own decisions. Doctors were advisors, who had time to keep up with all the new information. Then the modern era arrived. People became consumers, and marketing campaigns cranked up to convince people that more was better, encouraging them to demand their share. Insurance companies became for-profit, and managed care squeezed doctors, hospitals, and patients for profit. Marketing for money, increasing demand, and intentional roadblock of access to care pretty much sums up our current environment.