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S. Breanndan Moore, MB, FRCPI
Rochester, Minn

JAMA. 1993;269(14):1788.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—The article by Miles¹ struck a chord with me. The public's perception of physicians as money-grubbing elitists more concerned with personal wealth than in caring for the health of the populace is, unfortunately, often fueled by the outrageous examples such as the case described by Miles. Unfortunately, the entire profession is tarred by the same brush by these perceptions. However, we shouldn't feel so self-righteous that we merely shrug off the suggestion that there might actually be some truth in the generalization. While we can correctly blame unreasonable patient expectations, greedy lawyers, or burgeoning bureaucracy for many of the failings of our unwieldy and inefficient health care systems, we surely must take responsibility for our failure as a profession to reassert its central role in compassionately delivered care where it is needed irrespective of class, color, religion, or bank balance!

Have we forgotten that we are . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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