Tags

In the mind of the public, American physicians are represented by one prominent organization, namely, the American Medical Association. Yet, only a minority of American physicians currently belong to the AMA, which has long grown comfortable with political and government intrusions into healthcare.

Who should represent physicians when doctors may hold very divergent views on matters of politics, economics, ethics, and even science? Should there be one voice or a plurality of voices? Our guest today is the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), an organization that sprung up in the 1940s as an alternative to the AMA and to staunchly defend private medicine free of government interference or coercion.

Dr. Jane Orient (twitter) obtained her medical degree from Columbia University and is in a solo internal medicine practice in Tucson, AZ. She is a prolific writer, having penned hundreds of op-eds in national and local media outlets. She is the author of numerous books, notably Your Doctor is Not In: Healthy Skepticism About National Health Care and Sutton’s Law, a novel about where the money is in medicine. She is also the editor of the famous textbook Sapira’s Art and Science of Bedside Diagnosis, now in its 4th edition.