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CHASER 6
Concluding Remarks
The committee has addressed its task with enthusiasm and concludes this
report with optimism not for a quick fix but for a number of steps that can
enhance the occupational and environmental aspects of medical practice.
Fostering the role of the primary care physician in the practice of occupa-
tional and environmental medicine, especially its preventive aspects, is not a
simple matter. Too often, it has been dismissed with a call for more education
and more attention to occupational history taking. Taken together, it was
assumed that these steps would solve the problem. Not so. Attaining optimal
clinical practice by the primary care physician in this field of medicine is fraught
with multiple problems. These include deficiencies in the primary care
physician's basic perception of occupational and environmental medicine, their
limited place in general clinical practice, and their low visibility in the medical
education process. The data base for the clinical practice of occupational and
environmental medicine is frequently available only with difficulty to the
practicing physician. it iS often in the hands of government agencies, is much
fragmented between and within occupation and environment, and is not
organized for an easy interface with the practicing physician. The type of
practice activity emerging from occupational and environmental medicine
demands much time, currently at such a premium in primary care practice, with
a low financial reward. These factors compound the increasingly recognized
physician dissatisfaction with the sharp discrepancy in personal reward between
the non-procedure-oriented primary care practice and the procedure-oriented
specialty. Despite these constraints, the committee feels that there is a mosaic of
feasible steps that could enhance this area of medical practice considerably, with
greater satisfaction for physician and patient alike. Complete resolution of some
of the issues would require a more sweeping overhaul of the structure of medical
practice.
One is tempted to base an appeal for more attention to occupational and
environmental medicine by the primary care physician on numbers, yet calcu
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rations yield paradoxical results. With the entire population of this country
exposed in one way or another to environmental hazards and as many as 70
percent of the adults having the aciditional exposure of a workplace, one might
expect that the incidence of morbidity would be great. Unfortunately, as noted
in this report, accurate figures are not available. On the other hand, when
calculated with the best available figures in the context of a primary care
physician's daily practice, only a.limited number of encounters might be
expected each month, unless one includes an extensive list of possible exposures
for almost all patients. These figures clo not attract the attention of the busy
physician who encounters so many more frequent and demanding problems.
The average primary care physician does not consider occupational and
environmental medicine part of the mainstream of clinical medicine. Occupa-
tional medicine is considered a rather arcane subspecialty of practice, largely in
the hands of physicians trained in preventive medicine. In medical education,
it is not a highly visible part of the student's clinical experience or a resident
physician's rotational program through clinical specialties. Environmental
medicine appears even more nebulous to the physician, with no visible structure
as a medical specialty, no specialists, and few textbooks orjournals. A physician's
information about environmental medicine comes mainly from the news media
or from patients, frequently in the form of frustrating questions for which there
are no readily available answers. Compared with cardiology or hematology, it is
difficult to find a clinical consultant in the community who can deal with
occupational or environmental problems. The need for readily available clinical
consultants is impressive to the committee.
The committee recognizes the limiter] presence of occupational and environ-
mental medicine in most medical school educational programs. The startlingly
few identifiable curricular hours continue, despite vigorous efforts over the past
decade by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the Health
Resources and Services Administration, and others that have had only minimal
impact. A major reason is the lack of faculty with expertise in occupational or
environmental medicine or sufficient peer recognition to successfully compete
for time in a medical school curriculum committee. On the other hand, one
must consider the plight of medical education. Medical schools are being called
on to devote more time to a wide variety of clinically oriented topics including
geriatrics, nutrition, cancer, and the medical humanities. At the same time,
there has been an almost explosive increase in knowledge of the scientific base
of medicine to be taught in the preclinical years. As a result, the medical
curriculum has become overstuffed to a degree that appalls educators and that
may deter students from entering medicine as a career. In his presidential
address at the annual meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges
in 1987, Dr. Edward StemmIer, Dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of
Medicine, inclicated that the trade-off decision between the amount of basic
science and new clinical material to include in the curriculum is a major question
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facing medical educators. While the fate of occupational and environmental
medicine in medical education is entwined in these considerations, without
trained faculty there will be no opportunity to teach the subject.
Many recommendations of this report relate to the practical realities of office
practice; some call for basic and systemic changes. In many areas of medical
practice, there is the strong and widespread belief that physicians should spend
more time and effort on disease prevention and health promotion. Although
highly desirable in concept, the practice patterns of today's physicians must
emphasize efficiency and cost containment, leaving little time for preventive
efforts. The procedure-based reimbursement system gives little economic re-
ward for time spent on prevention. These are issues of great importance in
medicine today, and they will not likely be addressed in the field of occupational
and environmental medicine alone.
Finally, meetings with several groups of practicing physicians have empha-
sized the reality of a rapidly changing scene of primary care. Complex new
factors of regulation and economics are molding the way physicians practice
medicine. The physicians still wish, however, to provide their patients with the
best that medical science has to offer. The committee is optimistic that the steps
recommended here will aid in achieving that goal.
~3
Representative terms from entire chapter:
care physician
