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Posts Tagged ‘bio ethics’

Forbidden quotes in medicine

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 22, 2024|

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My dear physician , don’t feel ashamed to prescribe Digoxin for Atrial fibrillation !

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on July 1, 2016| Leave a Comment »

 

It was delicate few minutes  in one of  my recent  visits to a corporate hospital , when I noticed an emergency physician  hesitated to follow my advice to  prescribe IV Digoxin for a patient with  Atrial fibrillation and fast ventricular rate.His fear was, his consultant, a modern day cardiologist wouldn’t like it as Amiodarone has become a default drug for atrial fibrillation in that Institution. I could sense. . .he felt so out of place to take on my suggestion.

I reminded the young physician , the uniqueness  of  Digoxin and its  un-diminished value for this particular indication ,still he was reluctant and didn’t oblige.

I realised , it was my mistake to expect  a place for the humble fox glove in corporate crash-carts of centrally climate controlled  cardiology suits !

“Medicine need to be practiced   not only with best science(Truth) but also in a holistic and  cost efficient manner . There is no place for glamor, glitter  and commerce in your prescriptions !  In near future , teaching Medicine to students would  essentially  become  “more of moral” than “science” .

Reference

Link -Which is the best combination for rate control in Atrial fibrillation

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A truth about half truths . . .

Posted in dr s venkatesan -Personal, Venkat quotes, tagged , , , , on October 31, 2012| Leave a Comment »

A truth about half truths!

Arthur  Garson  explores further  .  Click on the Image to get a sample page from Amazon

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Why doctors are referred to as “Practicing” Medicine

Posted in bio ethics, cardiology-ethics, general medicine, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on August 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

It is  often  quoted  “Practice makes  every one  perfect”  . . .  Doctors continue to practice for ever  . . .If practice is only  a rehearsal  , when do they perform  for real ?

And , we know  a doctor spends his entire life time practicing  . . . In other words  doctors are only experimenting .

So , do not get fooled by his errors . Errors are bound to  happen  during their  practicing sessions !

The problem  with general public  is , they never understand this basic fact – medical  science  is nothing but  a , on going research on human body .If only  we understand this  we can accept  the millions of medical  mistakes*  that occur  every day in  the global  medical  profession . The major  aim of modern medical science  is to reduce that .

* Of course, negligence is a punishable offense . But,  we should also realise , non- negligent medical  mistakes are many fold higher than negligent ones .

While  a careful doctor will avoid negligent mistakes a thinking doctor will avoid   non -negligent mistakes also.

This puts onus back on doctors. We need to critically analyse , every

treatment modality we follow .

If you are a strong believer of   “Medicine is indeed  a  science and doctors are scientists ” , please read this article from British medical  journal and conclude  yourself.

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/328/7454/0-h

Further reading

The bestseller  How doctors think

Picture courtesy : Jupeter stock Images

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The fine art of converting healthy persons into patients .

Posted in bio ethics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 24, 2010| 1 Comment »

Common sense would  indicate  medical care is  meant for the sick and ill  . Relieving  the mankind  from all those  suffering  with a healing hand has made the  medical profession noble and sacred .Medical science   grew with this sole aim  many centuries ago  .Some  times  we succeeded   and many times we failed  and the journey is  continuing .

In those days ,scientists were dedicated , inventions were genuine and were driven by a need to conquer a diseases .Some where along the line, (May be in the last 2-3 decades?)   our quest for money power exceeded commonsense  . Commerce entered   every  walk of life and  medical science became the biggest causality.

The purpose of noble   profession was forgotten . Simultaneously   public awareness and quality if life vastly improved in many of the developed countries . So the traditional illnesses  either disappeared  or reduced   to a great extent . Then came the life style diseases.The cost of treating  an illness spiraled too much especially   in the scientifically advanced countries . What was perceived  as great health care system  became  the  most ridiculed  health system in the planet  ?

Why ?  The simplest answer to this q  is

In the name of science  and  modernity , medical treatment  was glorified beyond the level it deserves ,  and hence  the  cost of treatment is  kept at artificially  & foolishly high  (This often involves  diagnostic   exploration of human body with modern gadgets without any meaningful   purpose )  .

ie , In  a  nutshell  of modern medicine is   often a medical mirage than a miracle . We know ,  the chances of success  as we  try  to chase it. If we think the  world is   waking  on this issue .

We are in for a surprise ! Even as  every one  is asking for outcome analysis in modern health care

more and more countries just imitate the failed ( Scientific and moral failure ) western models of health care .

When major illness are reducing in a society what will the health care providers do ?

Feel happy ?  Yes that’s what   a  sane   mind  would   do .  In a capital  rich ,   health conscious ,   knowledge  driven  society the opposite happens .

When  the patient  input  into a top hospital  reduces , the MBAs   in  them plan strategies  to bring  increase the bed occupancy rate and  maintain  patient  parity.

If sufficient  patients  are not there in a community what shall we do ?

Create  more  patients

Creating  new patients is a too dangerous game ,  what shall we do ?

In the  name  of preventive screening   let  us  label   normal  persons as patients .

How to do it ?

The following examples  are personal observation made in  huge city of educated elite  in a developing country . Excuse me if it offends a few  . . .

Define, redefine all criteria that define the disease (There are

  • Make, 130/85mmhg of blood pressure as pre hypertension and make them visit our HT clinic every month.
  • In the  name of risk stratification do CRP, Micro HDL , Apo a   etc and  catch them  for primary risk reduction for a non existing illness
  • Let us  label  all the   age related  bone loss as  deadly osteoporosis and do bone graft.
  • Let us  call  the occasional post dinner stiff stomach as non ulcer dyspepsia   and  insert a  endoscope  into the patient tummy .
  • Do a 64slice CT  in a master health check and convert many  of the healthy  normals into carriers   soft  coronary plaques.
  • Do a ultra sound scan  in every one who takes alcohol and  give our brains a temptation to label  the normal  fatty streaks  as infiltrative  fat disorder .
  • Do routine pelvic scan and detect  sub clinical fibroid uterus as potentially  malignant and  post them for hysterectomy on the next operation day.
  • Convert all healthy women as a  potential cervical cancer  and administer  herpes vaccine and help  the vaccine company share  move up in wall street !
  • Finally , screen  all  our  playful   kids for   learning disability and   label them as slow attention deficit disorder  and  make their  life permanently   miserable .

The list is endless  . . .

Final message

We  are in a  era ,  where  even   a  simple  illness  ( common cold ? )  can be converted into a billion dollar industry . ( Are you aware of H1N1 fiasco ,  The role of   WHO  and  mystery labeling of pandemic !)

While the above  misadventure  with scientific excesses   goes  on merrily  , lest we forget , millions of children  and adults  suffer in misery for want of  live saving  investigations and drugs  in any country .

When a person with a head injury dies due a  missed   subdural  hematoma for want of CT scan in one hospital  ,  ” in the adjacent hospital”  a wealthy and healthy man  ( who got admitted for master health check up ) undergoes  a series of scans  all over the body   even as he is  watching   the  satellite TV in  the comfort of a  five star suite   !

God will never  forgive  the  noble professionals   if they are part of this  negative health care  forces

Finally  ending with a very positive note !

The new   initiative by  Obama   , ” Health care  for  the uninsured ” is to be welcomed as great move  and will do a world of good .

But , our  only  request  to WHO ( or related   bodies )  is to create a forum or authority  to  impeach all fancy diseases from the medical   literature  !

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Medical pharmacology is not simply learning how a drug acts , it is also about “How a drug company acts*” !

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on September 19, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Pharmacology is a major discipline in medicine where we learn how a drug acts in our body for various ailments . Now  in this era ,  doctors need not only how a drug acts but also how a drug company acts ! This has become vitally important   for the welfare of the mankind .

In this context one of the best books on medical pharmacology is from the

Famous Editor of New England  journal of medicine

A must read for all genuine medical professionals

ethics hippocrates ebm

Watch Marcia Angell  talk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouF3ISihHLM

Full lecture of Mercia Angell  http://videos.med.wisc.edu/videoInfo.php?videoid=940

Click to buy/read the book  http://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Drug-Companies-Deceive/dp/0375508465#reader

A Review  about the book  http://calitreview.com/176

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Sending home a patient without a diagnosis is not a crime !

Posted in bio ethics, cardiology-ethics, general medicine, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 9, 2008| Leave a Comment »

One of the important principles of medicine  is  “Diagnosis should  always precede treatment”

This quote , though appear reasonable , can not be practiced always especially in emergencies,  where we  have to first stabilise the patient   without a  prior diagnosis  .(Like administering IV fluids in hypotension , acetaminophen for fever , etc)

Modern medicine  considers treating a patient without a diagnosis as unscientific.

But,  it is a well recognised fact ,  millions  of decision in everyday medical practice is not based on scientific diagnosis  but on clinical acumen and empirical therapy . There are many  instances  wherein , we are never near the  diagnosis  even after exhaustive investigations. 

prescription3

                       Ironically , in this era of evidence based medicine , when  we are  unable to  conclude ,  we are forced  to do the most  funniest  thing , namely converting patient’s symptom itself as disease entity and  be happy  in labelling them. Like , Motion sickness ,  poly-arthritis, , chronic fatigue syndrome, adult respiratory distress syndrome ,  pre mature ejaculation, fever of unknown origin  , attention deficit disorder , etc (The list is endless . . .)

               This happens because physicians always feel guilty if they are unable to label a patient with a disease entity.

Is the guilt  justified ?  Not necessarily so !  Symptomatic treatment without  diagnosis  is the most dominant theme even today (Fever, pain etc ).So don’t feel unduly negative* when one is not able to fit a patent’s  symptom into a disease entity  but ensure  he  gets relief from his symptom.

 *Except of course , one has to rule out a serious disorder.

 Comments welcome

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