Lack of Real Science of Symptom-Based Care of Patients with Chronic Benign Disease

Abstract

Objective.—the management of chronic benign diseases although the mainstay of many practices, has not been the focus of education of physicians. the resulting dissonance causes much dissatisfaction on the part of both providers and consumers of health care. I hypothesized that lack of real science in this area is largely responsible for this problem.

Data sources.—I scanned for that purpose important textbooks, published papers, and the opinions of faculty program office representatives of medical schools.

Study Selection.—as criteria I used priorities and common symptoms of patients with chronic benign diseases as estimated by the representatives of the 38 Patient Protection Groups in the Netherlands.

Data Extraction.—data were extracted for the most part independently of the investigator by the librarians of our institution.

Data Synthesis.—textbooks provide virtually no information on the management of symptom-based care. This is probably due to lack of clinical trials on this subject on the one hand and negative feelings about the appropriateness of such approach on the part of the universities on the other hand.

Conclusions.—as both prosperity and mean age rise, the profession will be increasingly involved in the problems of patients with chronic benign diseases. Symptom-based management independent of disease is priority here. Currently no real science in this field is available. It is time that faculties start building a body of science of this increasingly important part of health care.