TLC Podcast Episode 57: Dr. Ben Edwards on the Crossroads of Medicine and the Law
“Medical school taught me how to diagnose symptoms and how to give the drug to treat… There is no money in chronic disease resolution; there is money in chronic disease management.”
The TLC Podcast branches out this month as host Rafe Foreman interviews Texas physician, Dr. Ben Edwards, on the crossroads between medicine and the law.
Dr. Edwards made the shift to integrative medicine after building a successful practice in conventional medicine. He works with his patients to drill down to the root cause of their symptoms, considering the patient’s unique needs and incorporating what he calls the “Four Pillars of Health” – nutrition, hydration, movement, and peace – to make lasting change.
In this wide-ranging interview, Dr. Edwards shares his observations about the US healthcare system, describing it as having the worst outcomes of any first-world nation, despite the highest spending on healthcare. He calls for a shift in the medical education system toward a more integrated, holistic model over the current pharmaceutical model, saying, “we need a new model that focuses on outcomes. There is not another industry that would accept the outcome statistics the healthcare industry has in this country. We get the worst outcomes and spend the most doing it.”
The interview takes a deep dive into the development and administering of vaccines and discusses how injuries related to vaccinations were taken outside the court system, indemnifying vaccine developers. The result is a difficult-to-navigate compensation program that makes injury difficult to prove and limits compensation.
Included in this Episode
- The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
- How the medical profession and legal profession might work together to solve problems
Important Links
Episode Guest, Dr. Ben Edwards
Dr. Ben Edwards received his undergraduate degree from Baylor University and later graduated from UT-Houston Medical School. He and his wife Jamie moved to Waco to complete Ben’s training at the Waco Family Practice Residency Program, where he served as Chief Resident. After graduation, Ben and his family moved to West Texas and the Garza County Health Clinic in Post, TX.
Dr. Edwards’ clinic uses a “Direct Primary Care” model, which puts physicians and patients in charge of healthcare decisions by removing insurance from the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Edwards practices functional and integrative medicine, combining multiple disciplines to discover and address the root causes of patient health challenges.
