BURRASCANO LOPETTAA!

[Bb]

Lähettäjä: Soijuv Lähetetty: 15.8.2006 19:13

Burrascano lähetti viestin, jossa hän kertoo lopettavansa potilaiden vastaanoton 25 vuoden työvuoden jälkeen. Hän on yksi merkittävimmistä borrelioosia, erityisesti kroonista borrelioosia, hoitavista lääkäreistä maailmalla. Hän on lisäksi kirjoittanut nettiin ohjeita borrelioosin hoidosta ja diagnostiikasta. Nyt hän siirtyy kouluttamaan lääkäreitä, jatkaa tutkimustyötä ja toimii politiikan rintamalla borrelioosiasian hyväksi..

"...Päätös on ollut vaikea. Olen kyennyt auttamaan monia suurenmoisia ihmisiä ja minulla on ollut myös hauskoja hetkiä. On erittäin vaikeaa sanoa heille hyvästit. Toisaalta on useita muita asioista joita haluan tehdä potilaideni hyväksi. Vastaanottoni sulkeminen mahdollistaa keskittymisen näihin asioihin. .. Resurssini eivät ole olleet riittävät vastaanottamaan kaikkia vastaanotolleni pyrkiviä potilaita - borrelioosiin erikoistuneita lääkäreitä tarvitaan runsaasti lisää...."


Dear friends, I have a major announcement to make.

After over twenty five years of medical practice, I have decided to close my office and retire from the clinical practice of medicine.

Last week I mailed out letters to my currently active patients to make this announcement, and I now wanted to share this news with my friends on-line.

This has been a very difficult decision for me. The rewards of medical practice have been tremendous. I have met and helped many wonderful people, and have had great fun too! It will be very very hard to say good bye. On the other hand, there is so much more that I would like to see done, on a larger scale, for the benefit of more patients. By closing my office I will have more time to focus on these broader problems.

I have become more and more frustrated of late, because I have had to turn away up to ten prospective patients a day? clearly, more Lyme-literate physicians are desperately needed. I feel that my experience with the management of patients with tick-borne illnesses would be better served by my spending more of my time on physician education and on completing my current, very important, research project. I want, once and for all, for the ILADS point of view to be the recognized standard for all professionals. I also wish to remain active in the political realm, as political reform and a more realistic view of our illnesses have to be addressed at the government and public levels.

I realized that it is impossible for me to run a full time medical office and also pursue these other goals. In addition, because of the high cost of running an office, I cannot simply see patients part-time, because many fixed costs do not decrease simply because fewer patients are being seen.

My decision comes at a good time for me personally. I feel well, my prostate cancer seems to be in a remission, and I have not had any bad news from the state Medical Board lately. In other words, this decision has not resulted from any secret problem that I am trying to hide. Of course, rumors will fly, but I say sincerely to all of you that there is no hidden agenda. PLEASE try to keep the gossip down, and also please don?t call my office to talk about this, because I do not want the phone lines to become clogged such that important medically related calls cannot get through.

It has been an amazing 25 years! Together we have witnessed many wonderful developments, but some disappointing ones too. We have made many new friends, but have lost too many to this disease.

I am grateful to all those who have stood behind me over the years, and I will always be thinking of you- that is the point behind my decision.

I hope that my future efforts on the behalf of the Lyme community will continue to be as fruitful and personally rewarding as they already have been. I wish all of you the very best!

With sincerity and great affection,

Joseph James Burrascano Jr., M.D.