Episode 11: The seeds of our Medical Destruction, Flexner Part One

Straight Talking Doc Unhinged

In 1911 the medical world redirected itself with the publication of the Flexner Report, a legacy we still live with today. Everything we discuss in this podcast--from putting numbers over people, to doctors being pimps of drug companies, to industry infiltrating every aspect of health care, to people being bamboozled by false promises and expensive treatments--was born out of the womb of Flexner. In the first of a four part podcast, we will explore how the patient-centric, critical thinking, scientific, and humanistic creed of William Osler fell prey to the Flexner alliance. With the report, eugenic medical thinking--in which all people could be reduced to fixable measurements--, industry, academia, and the AMA all joined forces to gain everlasting hegemony over doctors and the entire health care system. From now all, all doctors must be trained and licensed under the centralized top-down claws of the AMA, academic centers had to follow strict AMA protocols, and industry financed and controlled the whole thing. While we think that our health care system is scientific and caring, in fact it is just the opposite, and by understanding Flexner we'll learn why. My colleague and I, Alan Roth, have written a book about the role of the Flexner Report in poisoning our health care system, a book likely due out in a year. This is a sneak peak! You can see a bit about it on our website, https://www.andylazris.com/a-fork-in-the-road-at-hopkins