 |
          |
 |
  |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Medical Progress and Society
The alleviation of pain and suffering has always been one of mankind’s highest goals and, in ancients days, those who were able to accomplish such alleviation were revered as agents of the Gods. The pursuit of simple pain relief evolved over millennia into the belief that the manipulation of the course of natural events would always be possible, including the successful treatment of all diseases.
From primitive beginnings, accelerating most rapidly during the past one hundred years, the Western industrialized world has developed one of the most complex and multifaceted systems ever created in order to fulfill this aspiration towards treatment. Today, this system is called modern healthcare. The high priests of this system are numerous and carry many different titles. Some are worshipped and some are not. The hope for the elimination of disease remains the hope of all parties involved in the debate. Though progress towards the fulfillment of this hope has taken leaps and bounds, it is in many areas still critically wanting, despite the burgeoning of organizations too numerous to mention and the expenditure of sums of money undreamed of in the past.
As with any non-egalitarian and costly pursuit, the system and its practitioners have at times engendered the wrath of society, all the more so because society not only wants but also needs what the system has to offer. The controversies within the system have only multiplied as the notion of globalization has gained currency, as the growth in the number of human beings has begun to threaten the earth’s available resources, and as the inequalities between societies have become greater and more apparent.
It is now fair to make the claim that never before has the understanding of the very nature and cause of disease been nearer at hand. The biochemical nature of life and thought lie now within reach, as do the means to alter and control the aberrations which lead to agony, disfigurement and death. It is also fair to pose the question of why now, when the ultimate realization of the age-old dream of fast and permanent alleviation of suffering sits just over the horizon, there is not unbridled optimism and joy. Complex medical discovery and innovation only rarely capture headlines.
The role of medical discoveries has instead become one of the most difficult and politically sensitive issues facing global society. The Global Medical Forum Foundation was established to explore the causes of this difficulty and politicization, to seek solutions that are devoid of bias, and to expose hidden agendas or thoughts of aggrandizement from the false “high priests”.
The Foundation comes to the problem with the belief that understanding and truth within the healthcare debate, however unpleasant the resulting answers might be to some of the players in the continuum, must ultimately win the day. Scientific discovery will always be in mankind’s best interest and knowledge learned in one society will always be for the benefit of all societies.
The opening plenary session of the second Global Medical Forum, “The Long-term View of Healthcare as a Service to Society”, will be an open, honest, and direct discussion of healthcare in its broadest dimension. It will set the direction of the entire meeting and demonstrate the multiplicity of factors that must be considered when trying to make a constructive impact in the healthcare debate. The speakers are of the very highest level and have made vast contributions to the welfare of society by their spiritual, material, and intellectual leadership. All are realists, but dreamers also, for as the poet William Butler Yeats wrote, “In Dreams begin Reality”. It is the shared dream of a better world that brings them here together. |
|
||
 |
|||
 Plenary
Session: The Long-term View of Healthcare as a Service to Society
|
|||
|
|||
| Coffee Break, 20 Minutes | |||
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
GMF | 2.0
|
