I am a physician.  But modern medicine, with all its complexity and top-down control, has made me a salesman.  It’s an odd turn of events, because I remember when we tried to repudiate business and its effects on our practices.  We railed against corporate influence in medicine. We were shocked, shocked I say, at the power that drug companies and drug reps wielded.  We took a dim view of gifts, knowing as we did that sandwiches and refrigerator magnets were nothing less than powerful talismans that led us down the primrose path.  We turned a blind eye to industry sponsored studies.  We were, at least in the ER, suddenly deprived of the rare gorgeous drug rep who smiled and handed us pens; tossed her hair and laughed in the midst of our daily misery of drunks and body fluids. We rejected medicine and business and were pure as the driven Diprivan.  Sort of …

Turns out, we’re still salesman.  If you spend any time in a modern emergency department, you know what I mean.  The case manager is the broker of most of these sales, particularly when admissions are what we’re selling.

For the full article, please visit Emergency Medicine News.

Edwin Leap is an emergency physician who blogs at edwinleap.com and is the author of The Practice Test. This article originally appeared in Emergency Medicine News.