Medical treatment is care that aims to improve, cure or restore function to people affected by disease, injury and congenital malfunctions (birth defects). Non-surgical therapeutic procedures generally are less invasive than surgery.
Primary care medical services are provided by physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners. These are the health professionals who have first contact with a patient seeking care or advice. The doctor listens to the person’s problem, examines him or her and may order lab tests or imaging studies. The information is analyzed and synthesized to provide a list of possible diagnoses that would explain the person’s symptoms, and determine what treatment is needed.
Depending on the nature of the patient’s health problem, a specialist might be called in for consultation. This is especially the case for complicated problems that are not suited to self-diagnosis and treatment by primary care health professionals. A cardiologist, for example, would specialize in treating conditions of the heart and blood vessels. A neurologist might specialize in disorders of the nervous system. A gastroenterologist might treat problems of the stomach, intestines and pancreas.
The patient, doctor and health professional then weigh up the pros and cons of each possible treatment. This process, called shared decision making, allows the patient to take into account factors such as lifestyle, culture, religion and personal ethics when choosing a treatment option. This is particularly important for people who have life-threatening illnesses, who must sometimes make decisions quickly without time to work through their options.
It is understandable that patients with life-threatening diseases want to try anything that might help them, including untested treatments. However, it is generally preferable to enter a clinical trial in which a new treatment is compared with the current best treatment. This ‘fair test’ is designed to minimize biases and provide the most useful evidence about whether the new treatment will actually benefit the patient.
If a treatment choice is chosen, doctors should discuss the risks and benefits with the patient and agree on a plan for follow-up care. The patient should also be able to ask questions and express concerns about the treatment.
The final decision about the course of treatment is the responsibility of the patient, guided by his or her health care provider. Often this includes asking for information about the cost of various treatment choices and finding out how the health insurance company will pay for the procedure. If the cost is a serious concern, it is often possible to obtain grants and other financial aid to cover some or all of the costs. It is also common for health insurance companies to contract with outside centers of excellence in specialties such as hematology and oncology (cancer) to treat rare disorders when their own physicians lack the expertise to do so. This approach can help keep overall health insurance costs down and the quality of medical care high. It can also help the patient feel that he or she is getting the best possible care.