ABSTRACT
In recent years, the myth of the scientist-Magus has taken certain twists in the health-care arena. The explosion of technology has had a profound effect on the organization of health care and on the work of the implicated health professionals. The advent of widespread chronic disease, makes the sharp division between home and health facility far too simple a solution to the problems faced by the chronically ill. Much of chronic illness has to do with the patient taking care of his/her own body—there is a thin line between therapy and ordinary living. Modem medical care is far too complicated to allow equal partnership between patients and physicians in the decision making over treatment options. The American health structure—with its governmental health commissions and institutes, its privately funded disease-oriented associations and institutes—supports a categorical-disease approach.
