Adamson S. Muula1,2,3, Dzinkambani Kambalame1,4
- Department of Community and Environmental Health, School of Global and Public Health, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, Malawi
- Editor-in-Chief, Malawi Medical Journal
- President, East, Central and Sothern Africa (ECSA) College of Public Health Physicians
- Public Health Institute of Malawi (PHIM), Lilongwe, Malawi
Medical doctors and other clinician cadres such as clinical officers and medical assistants are key, certainly not the only, health professionals who need to keep an ear to the ground in understanding, weighing in and contributing to wider health matters. Being a doctor for instance, requires extremely high
levels of clinical technical skills, in the core area of medicine (and surgery). There exists of course a constrained view among some, especially in the clinical cadres that a clinician
must be effective in the limited confines of the “bed side”. These colleagues believe that the closer to the bedside one is, the more faithful to their calling they are. Those who show interest in broader societal and professional issues such as health systems practice, research (more so if it is not clinical research) and advocacy are viewed as having betrayed the “calling”. In thinking and doing so however,
doctors clearly miss an important component of being a doctor. The education and training of a medical doctor is so comprehensive that if done effectively, covers much more terrain than just clinical medicine. To be sure, clinical medicine is important and we can argue that well-trained and committed doctors are a critical and essential part of the health system. When doctors are not available, or in short supply or not committed to their calling, less than optimal health outcomes can be guaranteed. Among the many themes or focus areas which Malawian doctors should seriously consider learning about and
contributing are: Planetary and One Health, Climate change, Biodiversity loss and health systems engineering and reengineering. The leadership that doctors often have overall in the health system, must be brought to bear.