Why Doctors Hate Science

theodp writes "A 2004 study found some 10 million women lacking a cervix were still getting Pap tests. Only problem is, a Pap test screens for cervical cancer — no cervix, no cancer. With this tale, Newsweek's Sharon Begley makes her case for comparative-effectiveness research (CER), which is receiving $1 billion under the stimulus bill for studies to determine which treatments, including drugs, are more medically sound and cost-effective than others for a given ailment. Physicians, Begley says, must stop treatments that are rooted more in local medical culture than in medical science, embrace practices that have been shown scientifically to be superior to others, and ignore critics who paint CER as government control of doctors' decision-making."

Comments

But CER is government control

[tjstork]

Of course, its Newsweek, the famous liberal rag, and yes, the intent here is trying to persuade doctors that foolishly supported Obama into believing that they will somehow gain in the new regime. They won't.

Re:Why is govt-provided health care worse?

[RazorSharp]

That's not what my libertarian friend who's never left the country said! He told me that all Europeans receive terrible health care - for example, they have to wait ten months for a check-up and if you go to the emergency room shot you have to wait in line for hours. And it's such a financial burden on the state that the European countries are facing ginormous deficits which they will never be able to pay back. Not to mention the fact that they're miserable because they're socialists.

I tried to explain to him that everyone in Europe seemed happier - and much healthier - than us here in the States every time I went there, but he said I didn't know what I was talking about.

(btw, Europeans don't need superior healthcare to be healthier than Americans, they have superior diets)

Re:Because it stimulates the economy

[spun]

He's an idiot with a Nobel. Does Mises have a Nobel? Does Rothbard have a Nobel? Hayek has a Nobel, but he's the only Austrian School economist with one. So, what did you get your Nobel in? Don't have one? Well, if they are giving out Nobels to idiots these days, what does that make you? The fact that you can't see the value in trimming ineffective treatments from a medical system that costs the most while delivering some of the least bang for the buck in the world, gives us a hint.