In the past two centuries doctors have had a dominant role in health care. They examine their patients, diagnose illnesses and prescribe a cure to make them better. The profession of a doctor has been legalized; medical associations make sure that there are no quacks among them. With better methods in medicine doctors have been able to treat their patients more effectively. In many countries around the globe the profession of a doctor is much admired. They get good pay, have a university degree and save lives as well.
However, this may change in the 21st century. In the next two decades the WHO estimates that 22% of the population in the world’s richer countries will be over 65, more than double the percentage of 1990. Many of those will be suffering from chronic diseases and infectious illnesses will be spreading at a rapid pace throughout the slums of the Third World. For middle-aged working people, cancer and heart attacks will be among the main killers.
As the demand for doctors rises, their numbers are decreasing. The world will not have enough doctors to treat the chronically ill. Although the problem is more acute in the developing world, developed countries also have a shortage of doctors.
Especially the poor countries of the Third World have tried and found new ways of health care. In India, for example, surgeons in some hospitals perform only very complicated operations. Other trained workers do everything else. As a result, surgeries cost a fraction of what they do in America. Other hospitals lower costs by letting midwives take over routine births. In eye care clinics special technicians are taught to do tasks that do not necessarily have to be done by a doctor.