Specialization is healthcare has gotten to a point where body parts and functions are being sliced and diced into so many different parts and each has a separate specialist. I remember that, a few years ago, I had to be seen by an Electrophysiologist (who focuses on your heart’s timing, or electrical, system and on diagnosing and treating irregular heartbeats or arrhythmias) in the cardiologist’s office (no worries, I am fine!). That was the first time I learned that such a specialist existed.

On the one hand, it is great to see that people devote their entire life to become experts at such a minute level, which hopefully translates to better care. But, you also have a problem that when you become so focussed on one such thing,  one wonders whether the specialists understand all the interdependencies with all other things and provide a holistic treatment. One hopes that the glue to all of this is your general practitioner, but that depends!

Software in Higher Ed is fast approaching this model and all the problems associated with the healthcare generally applies here too!

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