To get a blood panel (cholesterol, liver enzymes, hemoglobin A1c, etc) I need to see my PCP who will order those tests from a testing facility. Else my insurance won’t cover it. And I have to schedule a whole visit and pay the copay for the privilege.
Being able to get free tests every 6 months directly from the facility would be an example of a feasibly proactive measure the system could do for us.
Maybe you’re only
thinking of a system that will somehow get people to eat healthy and exercise?
I thought this was the main goal of things like preventative medicine. Earlier testing, and more frequent testing allows you to catch things while you still 'feel healthy' so they do not become a chronic problem in the long term. Simple things like tracking weight, blood pressure over time. Add in things like colonoscopies, breast exams, I would say most medicine should be preventative, ie keeping you healthy, rather than reactive, of just trying to try you when you are ill.
Unfortunately most doctors’ training simply doesn’t cover preventative medicine. Most medical schools teach doctors pretty much only to respond to medical situations.
For example, a root cause of why there’s so much confusion among the general public when it comes to diet is that doctors receive very little nutrition training (maybe one course in their entire medical degree), so they know little about what the nutrition scientists are saying and have almost no knowledge of the primary literature and how to read and contextualize it.
And yet most people will give far more credence to doctors for nutrition advice over actual nutrition scientists and researchers even though the latter have real knowledge about the science, whereas the former are largely basing their ideas on conventional wisdom, or lately pushing fad/extreme/industry paid for diet because they realized they can make money off of it.
Things are improving, such as with heart disease doctors and their industry bodies because the link between diets high in say saturated fats and cardiovascular disease is so clear, they cannot ignore it, but the medical field has a long way to go still.
This happens in a number of medical systems of countries across the world and is perfectly feasible, usually through premium subsidies for stuff like planned check ups, buying certain types of food and even installing equipment to monitor your driving behaviour. The thinking is that encouraging customers to be healthy reduces premium claims in the future
Being able to get free tests every 6 months directly from the facility would be an example of a feasibly proactive measure the system could do for us.
Maybe you’re only thinking of a system that will somehow get people to eat healthy and exercise?