Sick people have been taken care of by different health systems for many years. While some of these health systems have been sensitive to the needs of the patients, others have not. The effectiveness and sensitivity of those health systems to the needs of individual patients do not always reflect population data, and vice versa. Physicians can change those health care systems in ways that are both sensitive to the needs of individual patients and reflect population data by: explicitly assessing the appropriateness of any major medical or surgical procedure before it is performed in a specific patient, ensuring assessment of appropriateness is based on reliable information, and insisting that research about health care delivery focus on eliminating unnecessary care and wasted resources.
