Personalized Pain Medicine: Turning Theory into Policy

Abstract

On the one hand, patients, therapists, policy-makers, business people, and health organization managers need to approach medicine from different perspectives, each perspective being appropriate for each role. On the other hand, a lack of appreciation of the perspectives of the other vested interests diminishes their effectiveness in accomplishing what their respective roles demand. In this article, we explain the main difference between these perspectives along a spectrum ranging from highly individualist to highly collectivist views of medicine. We aim to show the gap between personal (individualistic) and social (collectivist) medicine models. We then present possible ways to close this gap.