Heart specialist Dr. Hector E. Mateo has criticized Dominican doctors for sending patients to have an excessive amount of tests. He says that many of these tests are unnecessary because the problems suffered are just due to their aging process. He criticized the fact that medicine today has lost a lot of the human touch. During the launch of his book at Cane Restaurant in Santo Domingo on Monday, 14 October, the prominent cardiologist quoted Dr. Eric Topol, author of “The creative Destruction of Medicine” where Topol proposes the use of biosensors and genetic information that would allow medicine to “digitize humans,” or rapidly collect data that enables doctors to customize patient care.
Mateo said that the important thing is to know how to find the information and how to use the information because much of the information on the Internet can do more harm than good. He said many patients engage in self-diagnosis and order their own tests that are often unnecessary and can lead to costly treatments.
Dr. Mateo said medicine has become too businesslike and because millions are invested in expensive equipment, commissions are paid to doctors to send patients for tests to use the equipment.