There were times when all healthcare needs of the patients were dealt by only one physician who could diagnose the problem at first instance and filter the patients before referring them to a specialist in the required field. The changing trend in medicine has dissolved the concept of general physicians and created demand for specialists and super specialists for every organ of our body. The day is not very far when within the same organ of the body, the doctors would segregate our organs into various sections and deal with them separately.
No wonder the super specializations has made a commendable scientific progress in medicine, but how far are we getting benefited with further segmentalization; is an important aspect to understand. The super specialization may be narrowing the knowledge of our specialist in other field of medicine which may be necessary to get a broader view about the patient’s health problem. The tubular vision of our specialists may lead to an improper diagnosis and its relation with other body parts. Eventually, there could be a possibility of partial diagnosis and unnecessary exposure of patients to various specialists, thereby increasing the burden of cost on patients in availing healthcare services. Though, the overall argument supports that super specialization has raised costs and affected the coordination of care, but has benefited in offering specialized care which was not being offered before. There are problems that require a specialist more than a generalist and without their interference; it may not be possible to fight those specialized health problems.
All said and done, the above argument does not side line the primary physicians as well. Their importance still remains strong. Their broader knowledge in medicine can help a patient in harmonizing their health problem by identifying and linking their health problem with other co-morbid conditions of the body.