The destructive health consequences of political polarization

In his latest KevinMD column, ACP's Vice President of Membership and Global Engagement, Philip A. Masters, MD, FACP, shares his observations about political polarization and its destructive health consequences. While effective medical care requires physicians to engage with patients around potentially political issues, an increased level of wariness, suspicion, and sometimes anger regarding these topics damages the ability to establish and sustain meaningful therapeutic relationships, Dr. Masters noted. Physicians can help to bridge the divide by remembering that health care is first and foremost a primary human issue, providing scientifically based and unbiased information, and seeking common ground on health issues, among other steps.

“In the end, we need to understand that the same deep passions that are the foundation of our divisiveness are much the same as those that brought us together as a society and country in the first place,” Dr. Masters writes. “The challenge is for each of us to understand that what unites us far exceeds those things that divide us, and that the health of our patients and nation will be better if we can recognize this.”