Medical Politics 101

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. –Plato (427 BC-347 BC) Today's world faces problems that are complex and complicated. The field of medicine is showing rapid progress with new discoveries, policies and paradigms [1–4] and seeing new challenges which require new and rapid responses. Consequently, medicine and healthcare are being increasingly turning into a business [5]. Despite progress in many areas, there are certain key sectors within medicine that are chugging along rather slowly. We don't seem to have answers to medical politics and questions like: ● On what basis was the government acting with regard to issues of practice? ● Why is my treatment not covered by government or insurance? ● Why is the funding cut for specific procedures? ● Why are resources being allocated for something we don't all agree upon? ● On what basis was the funds divided amongst all the different parties and how on earth did they get all that funding and space when they do not seem to have the required workload? ● How on earth did he get elected to that position over several more competent and credible candidates? These are the all too familiar grouses heard amongst the public, physicians, ancillary staff and the administration. Everyone blames the politicians even though we really do not understand how the system works. Is there a better way to deal with controversial biomedical issues confronting us today? Can we anticipate the forces that will emerge on the various sides of an issue better, or are we destined to muddle through and institute policies incrementally and contentiously? [6] Politics is often associated with dishonour and corruption because that is how it is frequently practised. The unfortunate truth is that political pressure has been imposed to alter scientific reports on everything from the environment to occupational health, and racial disparities in health care [7]. This is not as shocking as it seems. After all, we do manipulate in our daily lives and in politics, the level of manipulation is just a lot more. As much as we would like to deny it, medicine is not immune to politics! Few of us in biomedicine want anything to do with politics because it is messy, chaotic and disordered, a far cry from the world we have been trained in. Politics, unlike medicine, is not evidence-based. …