Commentary

In Response to "Going for the Gold"

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This article is a response to Randy D. Danielsen's editorial "Going for the Gold" from the February 2015 issue of Clinician Reviews.

Hello Dr. Danielsen,

Your statement about the profit-driven health system captured my attention.

The US health care system is probably the most expensive in the world, and yet it was rated the worst in terms of its overall ranking for quality of care, access, and efficiency. (I got this information while I was in graduate school studying health care policy.) This resonates with your statement about the entrepreneurial and corporatized US health care system.

I surmise that the high cost of health care may be partly due to the over-utilization of services, and technology and drug charges that may not be necessarily effective. As a researcher, I support the role of Comparative Effectiveness Research as a cost-efficiency strategy by identifying and eliminating the "me too" drugs and services that are found to be less or not efficacious.

As a supporter of the PA profession, I think PAs are part of the solution to help mitigate the deficiency in access to health care. In addition, using PAs in place of physicians for certain services can defray the rising cost of health care. There's been data to show that PAs can perform 80% of the duties performed by physicians. PAs should find the right platform to be heard and integrated into all state or federal health care programs.

Maribelle Guloy, MSHS, CCRP
Executive Director
Clinical Research
Montebello, California

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