Slashdot Mirror
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."
The thing is, you can't completely absolve doctors of legal responsibility, what would stop them from killing and maiming people at will o.O?
"I'm aware of people getting rid of cancer homeopathically and therapeutically, yet are killed in good health by the court-ordered radiation therapy they were coerced into continuing."
Because we are talking about EVIDENCE-based medicine, not eye-of-newt, toe of frog nonsense and tinfoil hat paranoia. Let me guess, this is all orchestrated by the Jewish Illuminati Freemasons?
I bet that radio show was something like Alex Jones', which is why you didn't care to mention what radio show you heard it on. Some people will believe any form of bullshit--you are one of them.
All I can say is that the stock market is down 7,000 points since Obama first overtook McCain in the polls. You can talk about how great he is, but as it is, everyone with half a brain knows that Obama just spend a trillion dollars on welfare, won't accomplish anything, and all this talk about the Bush budget deficits is just utterly dwarfed by Obama's spending spree.
And you just wait, until we make you Democrats defend free trade. WE'll take the blue collar vote away from you, and then what will you have left?
This is my sig.
Let bureaucrats decide your treatment not doctors!
Wow, this is great!
Instead of my doctor making medical decisions, we'll have a government panel of "experts" making decisions about my medical treatments.
What could go wrong?
I thought it was bad when healthcare companies (HMOs) used accountants to make medical decisions, but I guess letting government bureaucrats make medical decisions is A-OK.
That's change for you.
---
U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (OK), a practicing physician, released the following statement today regarding ongoing negotiations between House and Senate over controversial and complex health care provisions in the stimulus bill.
"The health care provisions in the House stimulus bill represent ideological and partisan overreach of epic proportions. It is ludicrous to ask a body that can't track its own spending to determine which medical treatments are best for individual patients suffering from complex diseases. The only reason to fund this project now is to lay the groundwork for establishing a government board that will be empowered to make life and death medical decisions about health care treatments and cost," Dr. Coburn said.
Dr. Coburn explained that both the House and Senate version of the stimulus bill include $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research. Unfortunately, the House language overreaches by permitting the use of that money to make coverage decisions based on cost to the federal government.
"The practice of medicine is about 40 percent art and 60 percent science. A so-called 'comparative effectiveness' formula will replace the professional judgment of doctors and nurses, which is developed over many years, with the political judgments of politicians and bureaucrats. A comparative effectiveness formula will only save money by rationing care and ending lives. Congress is on the verge of enacting the same policy that Great Britain has used to decide, for example, that extending a patient's life for a year isn't worth more than $45,000," Dr. Coburn said.
"Trusting the government to ration care will take away choices and life-saving treatments from sick patients and deny families more time with their loved ones. Doctors and patients should be making decisions based on individual patient conditions and needs. Allowing government to make these decisions would set us on a dangerous path. The unelected staff and career politicians who are negotiating these details have almost zero real world experience in the health care sector. Congress should confess its limited capabilities in this area and debate this issue in the open, not rush through massive policy changes in secret," Dr. Coburn said.
Most of your post makes good sense (although simplistic, I'd guess) until
Try to check if you actually know something before opening mouth. Or did you think that the Slashdot crowd wouldn't understand the word "inflammation" and went for the car analogy: "lubrication"?
You are correct that corticosteroids do not directly aid the healing of the damage, but they are not helping because of their lubricating effect. They modulate the immune response, which is how they relieve the pain and inflammation. The "truth" here is probably more complicated than what we know about it. (Yes, I realize the linked research deals with muscles and not bone or connective tissue, it's just illustrative.)
Paul Krugman is an idiot.
There is ALWAYS something that can be done that has value. Rushing to spend money on doing nothing is pure unadulterated stupid.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
There are plenty of females here, you troll
You must be new here... I find your response to my irrefutable scientific claim to be weak and without substance. No wonder you posted anonymous.