Flamingos Publisher

Annual Checkup

How many people in this room go to doctors for routine checkups when nothing is wrong with you? When you found nothing is wrong with you how do you feel? Do you feel you want to go back again?
The idea of annual physicals started in the beginning of the twenty century, since then; there is no proven evidence that routine checkups for people with no symptom of illness improve survival rates. Maintaining mutual relationship between doctors and patients become routine practice and that is what galvanized this annual checkups.
The origin of annual physicals starts in 1920 when life insurance companies issued a data that was interpreted as people who had physical checkups lived longer. According to Dr. Mark Frame at Kernodle Clinic in Burlington, doctors interpreted that people who had the checkups are healthier because they take good care of themselves.
There is no evidence that annual checkups for people with no symptom of illness is the most common reason for visiting a doctor according to surveys by the centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2000. The survey indicated 64 millions office visits out of 823.5 millions overall visits in US. In another series of visits that started in 1989, expert committee sponsored by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, an arm of Department of Health and Human services found little support for many of the tests commonly included in a typical physical exams for people without symptom of illness. These endless physical tests can also lead to false alarms that are costly and risky to follow-ups. Even useful test like blood pressure and cholesterol need not be done every year if you’re not a patient of such sicknesses.
Many doctors say they do these test out of habit (to build relationship with their patients) or they do it out of conviction. Most of these people say their patients expect them to do the physicals. Therefore, they help establish trust by giving them the physicals. Dr. John K. Min, an internist in Burlington, N.C. tell a story in NYIMES that 72-year-old patient came to him for annual physical checkup for pap test that was not necessary because she had hysterectomy. She wanted a chest X-ray and an electrocardiogram that was not necessary because it was unlikely it would reveal a problem that needed treating before the symptoms emerged. She ended up leaving with just a few tests like blood pressure and cholesterol. Dr. Min thought he did the right thing about his patient’s health until a week later when local newspaper published a letter from his patient about him called “Socialized Medicine has arrived.”
As Dr. Russell Harris, an associate professor of medicine at university of NC said, “why we spent time doing things that don’t potential benefit people and skipping things that maybe of benefit—this is not a waste but a misplace of priorities.” However, many doctors now perform one initial examination to serve as a baseline of medical condition, and in your follow-ups visits, they would spend time counseling patients on things as stopping smoking, eating healthy food, and drink in moderation, use seat belt and so on.