How Important Are Physicians in the Grand Scheme of Life?

Anthony Rudine -- Just the other day as I was taking a break from my studies (which are going better, by the way), I was helping my mother in the garden. As I was pulling the weeds next to the waterfall and putting the mulch in the flowerbeds, I began to ponder the world, which I often do. And as I was pondering away, with weeds in hand, I thought about a physician’s place in the world.

I think the image of a physician has changed over the years, even from twenty years ago. What seems to be happening is that the reverence of the physician is decreasing, and the physician's autonomy is certainly decreasing, too. But I still think that many people view the physician as possibly the most important occupation in the world. A person who dedicates their life to healing and saving lives should be revered, right?

Well, physicians and other healthcare workers should without a doubt be rewarded for the job they perform, when it is a good job. But I do not believe the physician is the most important job in the world, not the occupation with the ability to make the largest difference for mankind per expenditure.

When you think back throughout history and view the major advances in disease prevalence and incidence, what comes to mind as the most important factor that contributed to the change? What occupation throughout the course of history has improved human life the most?

Certainly not physicians. Only in the last 100 years have we truly begun to make advances over our counterparts of thousands of years ago. What about research scientists? No doubt important, but the amount of time and money needed and the incredibly slow process of drug development make this occupation an unlikely candidate.

What about the leaders of various nations around the world? They certainly have the power to implement new policy and make decisions that affect, indirectly or directly, large masses of people. But as far as historical changes in human life have gone, I would not put leaders of nations even in the top five.

I think, without a doubt, that the one occupation that, if it ceased to exist, would destroy human kind in the shortest amount of time is the sanitation worker. Thinking back on the many human disease epidemics and pandemics, would they have happened to the same degree with proper sanitation? I think not.

The number of lives that have been prolonged and saved by the proper use of sanitation is incalculable, far greater than all of the lives saved by all of the physicians in history, in my opinion.