Doctors are obsessed with science . Science is man-made , often , the quality of which is far from perfect (Apart from scientific inaccuracies , personal and commercial conflicts creep in ) .Hence , patients may not get the true benefits of genuine science today . This has a huge moral and economic implications .
The entire life time savings of our population , is threatened to be consumed by the vagaries of modern medicine. A recent WHO report reveals , the major cause for poverty is attributable to the frivolous and greedy modern health care delivery system. Many times, bulk of the nation’s wealth is being spent on prolonging the final few months of lives(Often unproductive ! ) of their fellow citizens.
The irony is , many of these expenditures have questionable benefits.
- A simple car is prone for fewer errors but it still serves it’s purpose .A hybrid car which switches between hydrogen, petrol and electricity is obviously vested with numerous unexpected issues.
- An ordinary cell phone is easy to operate, while an Andorid 2.2 phone is loaded with great applications , but the original purpose of a phone , namely communicating with others is often compromised.
- Modern medicine is a monster machine with thousands of visible and invisible switches . The funny thing is most of us do not even know jobs assigned to these switches .Worst of all , these controls can self ignite or put off on its own . One can imagine . . . the potential errors from this monster controlled by a minuscule master of medicine .
Does your patient aware of all those uncertainties ! Why is it so difficult for us to communicate the above facts to our patients ? Mankind can benefit , if we put across the following doctrine to our public domain.
A medical non intervention can be as safe as an intervention , but one has to accept the occasional complications arising out of a non intervention . In this context it should be realised , we never hesitate to accept the consequence of a modern intervention.
Why and how our mind is readily accepting even deaths during an inappropriate procedure , while we struggle to accept even a temporary set back for not doing a needy intervention.
What is the solution ? We need to uncomplicate medicine . . . simplify them .When doctors intervene with common sense as a weapon to tackle the scientific excesses patient is bound to benefit.
Don’t ask don’t tell dogma should be replaced by ‘”Tell without asking” .Be transparent about the limitation of science.
Documenting and adhering to protocols is satisfying for upholders of science , but one should realize being unscientific also can help our patients many times.
When your hospital protocol says check for hypoxia in every patient with dyspnea , mind you it may land your patient to a totally unwarranted ventilator assistance for a very transient hypoxia reported your fellow over phone.
Here is an article that reveals , how a few oral words of advice could help both financially and academically in critical care.
http://chestjournal.chestpubs.org/content/138/6/1475.abstract
Final message
William Osler said ” Lesser is better” in medical communication . It may not apply today.
Did Osler was referring to falsehoods in medicine ? , Then , probably he is 100 % is right . . . for the current times !
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