An anonymous dentist on twitter posted what he viewed as the main difference between traditional and alternative health. (r)
I thought it was quite good:
Alternative health has more sensitive diagnostic criteria, and has higher standards of health by valuing subclinical disease. This is much more aligned with low volume, individualized medicine.
Traditional health requires a more binary approach to fit into algorithms that benefit people
at scale, which the system requires to function.
Take a high volume doctor and reduce him down to a dozen patients, in 30 days his practice style will be unrecognizable in favor of a more alternative approach.
On the flip side, take the most crunchy healer and put him in a Medicaid clinic and watch the prescriptions start to flow.
Neither side wants to acknowledge why the other exists, and until that happens the bridge will never get built.