A truly chilling article drawing corollaries between the contribution of performance metrics to the legal field's demise and the growing demand for similar performance metrics in medicine.

With each passing year, Big Med is following Big Law. Physicians, medical schools, and hospitals all proudly trumpet their standing in national rankings. Efforts to preserve and augment revenue streams produce a less patient-centered and more business-oriented approach to organizing the practice of medicine. Physicians are more and more commonly referred to as healthcare providers.

This is why the doctor-patient relationship—and using those specific identifiers—is crucial to the field of medicine. Doctors are more than care providers and patients are more than customers.