The perspective of the patient is the most important determinant as to whether an adverse event has occurred. The patients aren't trained to identify when an adverse event has occurred like physicians, but they are knowledgeable enough to know when there body isn't feeling right. I feel that the patients perspective is more detailed and honest because patients have nothing to gain by crying wolf in a clinical trial (assuming the proper legal procedures has been taken). The patient usually know how their body feels when it is healthy, so the physicians need to see and hear their patients perspective on the event to figure out what went wrong. Who else is going to determine if an adverse event has occurred? The physician can only go by what the patient tells him or her; unless there is visible evidence an adverse event has occurred. The physicians deal with so many different patients it becomes hard for them to keep up with the detail of every patients treatment. Yes, they can read and record information on the patient, but then those tend to focus on the major issues of the clinical trials. Physicians cannot have a complete understanding of the drugs safety without the patients perspective.

The reform bill affects on quality of health care

With the recent passing of the health reform bill the United States is taking a step forward in the progression of our health care system. There are many positive aspects of the bill that will prove to benefit millions of uninsured Americans. I do feel that economically we will all benefit from passing of the bill,but one area that might suffer is the quality aspect of health care. Honestly i can only see the reform bill having an adverse effect on the quality of care in the United States. Issues like the government possibly having a hard time funding the reform plan, thus taking away from technology research and overcrowding health care facilities give me the feeling this wasn't a good idea. How can our country afford to give everybody insurance? The answer is by raising taxes and decreasing funds put towards research. Technology is instrumental in the progression of medicine, and with all the funds being geared toward insuring the country we wont be able to find out easier less pain full ways to treat patients. Over crowding is the other quality issue that will be affected by this bill. As of right now we are short on physicians in this country and there will only be more patients as the bill becomes affective. This means longer wait times and shorter interactions with the physicians. Quality of care as we know it might cease to exist if something doesn't change within the next couple of years before the bill becomes active.