Daring to Practice Low-Cost Medicine in a High-Tech Era

March 9, 2011

A child with chest pain or tics, a toddler who is limping, a 12-year-old girl with abdominal pain or headaches, an infant whose fever does not respond to antibiotics — these are age-old challenges that pediatricians face. I have been teaching pediatrics to residents and medical students for more than three decades, but over the past few years, as I’ve watched trainees at work, sitting at their computers, and ordering and monitoring tests, I’ve grown worried that the practice of medicine has tipped out of balance. (NEJM)