Healthcare Futures

Medical Mentors: Maneuvering My Medical Maze

As the 77 million Baby Boomers age and need for expertise for theirs and their parents medical decision making, there is a growing need for “medical mentoring”. The term “medical mentoring” has been around for some time and is part of several medical schools formal academic program to assist pre-med and medical students eager to get additional gudiance as they embark on their long years of study. 

However, the type of “Medical Mentoring” I am referring to is the kind which would be similar to a financial advisor people engage for effectively planning and managing their financial needs.  The world of medicine despite the multiple direct to consumer television drug advertisements is an often even more mysterious and confusing then the financial world. People are seeking domain medical expertise in advising them in a full range of medicial decision making from clinical treatments to evaluating assisted living facilities for themselves or their parents.

“Mentor is the name of the person to whom Odysseus (a.k.a. Ulysses) entrusted the care of his son, Telemachus, when he set out on those famous wanderings of his that we now call an “odyssey” and which took him, among other places, to the Trojan Wars. Mentor was Odysseus’ wise and trusted counselor.”

To many patients and families, trying to navigate our US healthcare systems has indeed become an “Odyssey” full of various “wars” with providers, insurers and “the system” of red tape. Before managed care, reduced reimbursements, medical practice specialization and time constraints on physicians our “family doctor” was our “Medical Mentor”  of “Patient Advocate” in the past, but that role as all but disappear much like the housecall.

Medical Mentoring may just become a new college study major for college student entering undergraduate programs, one that would be multi-year study, training and internships and offer a professional degree and professional “certification” not unlike a CPA or CFP.  As the field of study expands, increase specialization would be a natural progression with individual medical mentors focusing areas such as preventive health, fitness & diet or medical treatments, or even managing the “medical maze” of providers and facilities. My friend Marjorie Alfus former general cousel at KMart and Chair at The Center for Women’s Business Research has been leading advocate for creating a solution for families struggling with medical maze issue, while pioneering educational support to train future “medical mentors”.

In some cases physicians are choosing to convert their private practices from a traditional insurance reimbursement model into a “medical concierge” model and are limiting their patient panel numbers and requiring cash only.  I would not be surprise if nurse practictioners, physician assistants and in some cases physicians pursue a medical mentor role as this trend emerges and grows in the–it seems that the past is prologue.

Take care,

Michael

www.execimpactgroup.com

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