Reflection #4 - Arizona State University MED 300

REFLECTION #4 2 After reading the book Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, the article on the “Ethics of Framework for a Learning Health Care System,” and watching the Cleveland Clinic Empathy Series, I have been able to reflect on the importance of a learning health care system in the United States. The dominant paradigm described in the article describes the sharp distinction between research and practice in health care. The article presents a traditional model of a learning health care system that is in its premature stages. The United States has the highest spending of GDP on health care per capita. It is approximated that only 50% of adults receive recommended therapies and that 30% of health care costs are wasted due to unnecessary health care spending2 . It is clear that our health care system is not “just” and complicated. A just system is defined as “one which present and future generations are able to access adequate health care services without the imposition of undue financial burdens of families.” The obstacles to just health care include “cultural, economic, political, scientific, and public health challenges.” Health care requires a continuously “updated body of evidence and research of effective and alternative ways to deliver and finance health care.” A learning health care system is a solution that is critical to th