US health care reform: the physician’s voice

Members of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Investigation have called for increased physician participation in the ongoing debate that has swept the nation in response to President Obama’s mandate for health care reform. “Physicians have a unique appreciation of the tremendous successes and even greater potential of our health care system, yet we also endure first hand its woeful deficiencies. In the ongoing debate about how to improve the current health care structure in the United States, our individual voices have been all too quiet,” laments the Journal’s leadership in a September 10 editorial.

   Recognizing the multifaceted nature of this debate as well as the integral role that physicians and scientists play in the development and delivery of medical care, the Journal invited academics, physician scientists, and key leaders to voice their opinions of what is needed to fix the American medical machine. These Personal Perspectives accompany the Editorial and are freely available below.