Jordan J. Cohen Lecture

"Healing and Heeling"

Daniel D. Federman, M.D.
Senior Dean for Alumni Relations and Clinical Teaching, Harvard Medical School

Daniel D. Federman, M.D., senior dean for alumni relations and clinical teaching at Harvard Medical School, compared the effort to address problems in the nation's health care system with the metaphor of a sailboat finding balance as it struggled against a headwind. In the second annual Jordan J. Cohen Lecture, Federman explained that more emphasis on preventive medicine and translational research would benefit medical education, but ultimately claimed that the American health care system itself—and a perceived lack of outrage among educators—is by far the largest "imbalance" of all in medical education.

"Is it ethical to have appointments so short that you can't remove the shoes and socks of a diabetes patient?" Federman asked the audience.

"Is it ethical to have an elderly patient with poor vision on eight, 10, or 12 drugs without your having access to a computerized base of information on drug interactions?…I believe we should enlist some medical students as agents of change, committed to designing a system of care that is equitable, cost-effective, prevention oriented, universal, and thus moral...if they recognize that a broad systems approach is needed, we'll see roaring progress to windward."

He recommended that programs be created through which selected medical students receive specialized training and mentoring in various subjects, including economics and social sciences, with the goal of creating leaders in the health care debate.

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