Pills and procedures, not prevention, dominate the focus of the American “sick care” system, explains Dr. Firouz Daneshgari. He explores what would happen if the efforts of the healthcare industry pivoted toward risk mitigation and the prevention of chronic conditions in his powerful new book, Health Guardianship: The Remedy to the Sick Care System.

“As a surgeon-scientist, I read new discoveries every day about extending the longevity of the human being past lengths we previously thought possible,” he said. “And it has become apparent that our bodies have the biological capacity to live a full life, beyond 100 years old, if only we have the proper institutions to help us maintain and improve our health.”

In his book, Dr. Daneshgari draws upon more than 30 years of research to offer an unflinching look at the systemic dysfunction caused (primarily) by America’s fee-for-service healthcare model — and proposes effective solutions.

“The hospitals are financial institutions that benefit financially from people being sick,” he said. “When you use healthcare services as a source of revenue, everything we do … has side effects or complications.”

Among those complications: Approximately half of all healthcare services delivered in the United States are a waste; there’s a tremendous lack of transparency and uniformity when it comes to prices; and intermediaries such as hospitals and insurance companies have come between doctors and their patients, Daneshgari explained.

“We have built a system specialized for sick care, and yet ironically we expect the results of ‘healthcare’ from it,” he said.

In Health Guardianship, Daneshgari details a framework for a new healthcare paradigm that prioritizes mitigation of health risks and elimination of chronic conditions, and rewards guardianship of health, not delivery of sick care services.

“My aim is to generate a national dialogue and movement toward a path forward that will create the next model of healthcare delivery. A model that will have all the medical and technological advances, and yet it is accessible, affordable, high quality and consumer-centric and not provider-centric,” Daneshgari said.

He describes how this new model can be implemented using the existing primary care infrastructure, with the integration of virtual health and wellness services to make proactive, consumer-centric healthcare as convenient and affordable as shopping and banking.

Acting like a whistle blower who calls out the existing dysfunction of the system, Daneshgari offers an imminently available remedy that would create the next generation of healthcare that is accessible to all, affordable by everyone and will provide the quality desired by healthcare consumers.

About the Author
Firouz Daneshgari, M.D., is a surgeon-scientist, educator and entrepreneur who has worked at the University of Colorado, Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University. He has published more than 200 scientific articles, led numerous scientific and clinical panels, and trained hundreds of students, residents, fellows and junior faculty.

Following implementation of the Affordable Care Act and approval of its mandates by the Supreme Court during 2010-2012, he founded BowTie Medical to create systematic innovations for bringing efficiency and value into the healthcare delivery system.