NEW YORK – An interesting phenomenon is happening to health care in the United States, quite apart from all the noise about changes to the country’s system of health insurance: individuals are starting to take charge of their own health and trying to avoid needing care in the first place. Just as people long ago moved from institutional, mainframe computers to personal computers, they are starting to make the same move from institutional to individual tools with their health – not for treating serious diseases such as cancer, to be sure, but for everyday monitoring and prevention.
发自纽约——在美国的医疗卫生领域正涌现出一个非常有趣，却又跟国家医疗保险制度变革所产生的争议无关的现象：民众正逐步开始掌握自己的健康状况并尝试避免在第一时间使用医疗服务。正如人们过去从大型公共计算机转投个人电脑那样，如今他们也正在从大型公众医疗机构中抽出身来，转而使用个人医疗工具——当然不是为了治疗癌症这类严重疾病，而是在个人日常健康监测和疾病预防方面。