Mortality of Malignant Melanoma in Europe is 2X United States
I attended the joint meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology and the European Academy of Dermatology last month. The meeting was the first of its kind and the quality was excellent. The setting was Munich, Germany about which I will write in another blog. Suffice it to say that Munich is a beautiful city and the Bavarian people were charming and hospitable.
To me the most startling information that was presented at the meeting was the mortality rate of malignant melanoma in Europe and the United States. Specifically, twice as many people in Europe die after contracting this cancer as compared to the United States. Let me restate this: the death rate from malignant melanoma in Europe is double that in the United States. I sought out Professor Andreas Katsambas, Professor of Dermatology from Athens, Greece for more information. I suggested that the only explanation I could conceive is that malignant melanoma is diagnosed at a later stage in Europe than in the United States. You see, the disease is curable when caught early. And the reason for the delay in diagnosis is that in many European countries socialized medicine does not promote preventive care or even consultations when a patient is concerned with a “changing mole”. This is more of a problem in the Eastern Block countries.
Before you accuse me of being a self-serving wealth-seeking physician consider that: 1) I am a supporter of universal health care, 2) I recognize that the health care system in the United States is broken and often functions below the standards of the industrialized world, and 3) I regard Denmark and France as having arguably the 2 best health care systems in the world. However, I have also experience health care in Sweden; or shall I call it non-health care. I have had 2 close Swedish friends wait up to 18 months for diagnosis and treatment of bone pain which would have been fatal had the diagnosis been bone cancer. I have seen what apathy and antipathy in the medical community does to patient care. And I have heard countless stories of patient complaints being ignored. I have heard from Canadian doctors telling of their dissatisfaction (subject of another blog) and been told of countless Canadians going to Washington and Minnesota for health care.
In short, when the economics of health care is more important than diagnosis, patients get hurt and some of them die. As the United States writhes through its debate on repairing the health care system, availability of diagnostic care should not be debated. When politicians talk citizens lose. The American system suffers from one major abuse that paralyzes the system. Administrative costs are twice that of the rest of the world. Simple as that. Money that should go toward availability of health care goes to bureaucrats. And political bureaucrats are the ones who are going to try to repair the system. I hope they learn from the rest of the world. Reduce administrative costs and universal health care is realistic and preferable as in Denmark and France. Ignore reality, increase costs, relegate providers of care to status below bureaucrats and diseases such as malignant melanoma have an increasing mortality.
To me the most startling information that was presented at the meeting was the mortality rate of malignant melanoma in Europe and the United States. Specifically, twice as many people in Europe die after contracting this cancer as compared to the United States. Let me restate this: the death rate from malignant melanoma in Europe is double that in the United States. I sought out Professor Andreas Katsambas, Professor of Dermatology from Athens, Greece for more information. I suggested that the only explanation I could conceive is that malignant melanoma is diagnosed at a later stage in Europe than in the United States. You see, the disease is curable when caught early. And the reason for the delay in diagnosis is that in many European countries socialized medicine does not promote preventive care or even consultations when a patient is concerned with a “changing mole”. This is more of a problem in the Eastern Block countries.
Before you accuse me of being a self-serving wealth-seeking physician consider that: 1) I am a supporter of universal health care, 2) I recognize that the health care system in the United States is broken and often functions below the standards of the industrialized world, and 3) I regard Denmark and France as having arguably the 2 best health care systems in the world. However, I have also experience health care in Sweden; or shall I call it non-health care. I have had 2 close Swedish friends wait up to 18 months for diagnosis and treatment of bone pain which would have been fatal had the diagnosis been bone cancer. I have seen what apathy and antipathy in the medical community does to patient care. And I have heard countless stories of patient complaints being ignored. I have heard from Canadian doctors telling of their dissatisfaction (subject of another blog) and been told of countless Canadians going to Washington and Minnesota for health care.
In short, when the economics of health care is more important than diagnosis, patients get hurt and some of them die. As the United States writhes through its debate on repairing the health care system, availability of diagnostic care should not be debated. When politicians talk citizens lose. The American system suffers from one major abuse that paralyzes the system. Administrative costs are twice that of the rest of the world. Simple as that. Money that should go toward availability of health care goes to bureaucrats. And political bureaucrats are the ones who are going to try to repair the system. I hope they learn from the rest of the world. Reduce administrative costs and universal health care is realistic and preferable as in Denmark and France. Ignore reality, increase costs, relegate providers of care to status below bureaucrats and diseases such as malignant melanoma have an increasing mortality.
posted by Edward Lack MD at 9:55 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home