Ralph Snyderman
Chancellor Emeritus, Duke University
Excerpted from The New Medicine Interviews

The expectation or the wish of the patient is to have that magic pill, to take it and have the problem go away. You see it in our country most obviously now with obesity and diabetes. What we used to call type II diabetes, adult onset diabetes, we’re seeing more and more in adolescents because they’re so obese.

People want a pill to make them be able to eat anything they want and not to gain weight. Everybody would like that. It’s just not going to happen in our lifetime or our children’s lifetime… The individual, like it or not, is responsible for their health as much as they’re responsible for their checking account or their retirement account…

We have this delusion that healthcare is somebody else’s responsibility… And when we get sick… somebody is going to make it go away. As a physician, who wouldn't love to cure the ills of the world? Believe me. I would… I wish I could tell you that it’s not your responsibility, but it is. It is everyone of our responsibility to take ownership of our own health care. And… the better we understand [that] and the more tools we have to take responsibility and to take it seriously, the more likely we’re going to have good health and a good life.

The way I see it, the ideal relationship between you and [your] physician is one of a partnership… Some people are going to be highly susceptible to diabetes. Others will be highly susceptible to coronary artery disease. Others may be more susceptible to other things. For many of these, if we knew about it, we could do things to help us avoid that pitfall in our health. So I think as we look forward, the role of the physician in the healthcare system will be to provide individuals information as to what are the relative risks … and what they can do to maximize their well-being.