Medical Treatment becomes a Privilege

Knowledge outruns the application of knowledge---the distance between increasing.

It was only a few years ago. I was alive, if barely, when Alexander Fleming shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Medicine for creating the first mass produced antibiotic. They weren’t using leeches then, but Doc Adams and his successors were still called “sawbones.” 

How fast medical knowledge has advanced and how much faster it is destined to grow.  How much slower will be the development of the practical ability to treat patients. 

This is how I picture the modern world.  Differential paces of change.  Science outpacing social practice. The gap increasing.

And sadly, at the same time, health problems are also increasing.,

These two trends together predict a world where more people need treatment for more serious illnesses and there are fewer beds, doctors, nurses, public health facilities, etc. 

How can we ensure that, as scientific knowledge increases, we will be able to provide treatment for those who would benefit?  It won’t happen automatically.

It should be one of our highest priorities. We need to study what is being tried in other countries around the world.  We need to free ourselves from ideological blinders and be open to new ideas.  We need to intentionally act through public and non-profit institutions. It will take a new approach to government.

Not just in the area of health, but in so many other ways, uncoupled rates of change will be with us for the foreseeable future. What can happen and what will happen are not two dominos falling into each other. Social good requires intentional choice.