Health Policy Expert Stanley Joel Reiser Discusses Medical Reform at AAAS Seminar

While Congress grapples with making health insurance more available for all Americans, a leading specialist on health policy and medical technology told a AAAS seminar that there also is an urgent need for health care professionals to change the way medicine is practiced.

Stanley Joel Reiser, clinical professor of health care sciences and health policy at The George Washington University, has devoted more than three decades to the study of how technology affects the delivery and quality of health care in the United States. He argues that doctors have become adept at treating disease but often at the expense of truly understanding the needs of their patients.

“In modern medicine, we often treat the disease fully and the patient partially,” Reiser said. “That is a formula for inadequate medical care.”

The seminar was co-sponsored by the AAAS Archives and the Chemical Heritage Foundation's Center for Contemporary History and Policy. To learn more about Reiser’s presentation, read the full story.