David Meltzer on the Doctor-Patient Relationship

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2018

⏱️ 69 minutes

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Summary

Physician David Meltzer of the University of Chicago talks about the power of the doctor-patient relationship with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Meltzer, who also has a Ph.D. in economics, discusses a controlled experiment he has been running to measure the importance of maintaining the continuity of doctor-patient relationships. Meltzer argues that the increasing use of hospitalists--specialists who take over a patient from the patient's regular doctor once the patient is hospitalized--has raised costs and hurt patients. The initial results from his study show that patients who stay with their doctors have fewer subsequent hospitalizations and have better mental health. The conversation closes with a discussion of the challenges facing the current medical system to adopt cost-saving or life-improving technology or techniques.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:08.0	I'm your host, Russ Roberts, of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:12.6	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find
0:17.6	links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:20.6	We'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done going
0:24.8	back to 2006.
0:27.0	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org.
0:29.0	We'd love to hear from you.
0:33.6	Today is July 26, 2018, and my guest is Dr. David Meltzer.
0:37.4	He is the Fannie L. Pritzker, Professor of Medicine, and Chief of the Section of Hospital
0:41.7	Medicine and Director of the Center for Health and Social Sciences at the University of Chicago.
0:48.0	And he has affiliated faculty at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy
0:52.2	and the Department of Economics.
0:54.3	He also has a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago, David.
0:57.9	Welcome to Econ Talk.
0:58.9	Thanks so much for having me.
1:01.1	So I found out about you from a near-time Sunday magazine article by Kim Tingley in May
1:05.6	of 2018 that was extremely provocative and will link to that article.
1:09.6	It's about the importance of the doctor-patient relationship and continuity of care, the importance
1:15.1	of patients being seen regularly by the same doctor even when they were in the hospital
1:20.2	and being in something of a crisis situation, an acute situation.
1:25.4	And the article mentioned your attempts to try to actually quantify and measure the
	...

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