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Posts Tagged ‘medical ethics’

Time to tweak the definition of “Professional incompetence” in medical practice.

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 28, 2020|

 

 

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Who is the “Real master” in Master health check up clinics ?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on September 17, 2019|

Master health checks* , superficially look like a perfect modality to practice the greatest medical concept ie “Prevention is better then cure” .Let us detect all human diseases early , prevent its progression, regress it or completely cure it . Absolute bliss is it not?

Why then articles such as this one should ever get published, that too in one of the prestigious journal of medicine?

*Master health check .( Also referred to as annual General health checks.)

Master health check up geenral cochrane bmj editorial

While the title itself is provocative, it adds a tag line which is still more a shocker.

There are specific well-researched reasons for this preventive health check fiasco.The masters, who were originally the guardians of health soon became disease mongers.In the process, the primary aim of propagating the doctrine of “prevention is better than cure”, could not reach its desired goals. Instead of ignoring and reassuring the minor deviation of biological data and Imagery generated, they became a perfect feed for the hunters who are after the trivial and non-existing illness.

Final message

Good intentioned health checks are always welcome in selected high-risk population say pregnant women/children of developing a world (As in endemic countries of rheumatic fever) Also cancer , CAD , screening in people with a positive family history can be critical.

However, when these masters of health deviated and started making a living out of apparently healthy people. ( The side effects reached monstrous proportions hiking global health cost in a meaningless way).People, especially in counties with poor resources, are the ultimate sufferers, as the cost and efforts are diverted, to fix the health of healthy, while people with true illness continue to struggle.

Will the WHO* wake up and intervene against this skewed practice of routine master health checks in healthy, that are rampant in both rich and poor countries. Ideally, doctors should order preventive health assessment for those who may need it.

There are enough grounds for public Initiated periodic walk-in health checks to be banned (or at least restricted)

*WHO is world health organization

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Found the secret of successful medical practice … in just three seconds !

Posted in cardiology-ethics, Quotes, Science and Religion, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 29, 2019|

 

*When I tried to condense three decades of my learning into the medical profession in three lines, I scribbled this. Sorry folks, if It doesn’t sound scientific for some of you! 

By the way, What is successful medical practice? Success for the Doctor, patient or both?  The answer to this question is never simple. 

 

 

 

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Random thoughts: If extreme poverty is a disease . . . what about uncontrolled affluence ?

Posted in bio ethics, medical quotes, tagged , , , , , , on March 8, 2019| 2 Comments »

Poverty is a cruelest disease of mankind , the infective vector is not any deadly HINI or retro virus , but mostly the fellow humans themselves ! This is why WHO has included poverty in the ICD code (Z59.5 ) as a disease .

I used to wonder , as a member of Noble profession , should we fight against this disease or be happy to spend my entire life time cleaning the coronary arteries of affluent human-beings and earn few bucks !

Can growth of money eliminate poverty ? 

We may think so  . . .  but it doesn’t most times .Of course ,  affluence bring more jobs to the poor , logically it should alleviate poverty. But , we  know the reality. Its not that easy concept to understand . However we have robust evidence for the opposite ie affluence can aggregate poverty .

If poverty is a disease &  if  mindless  affluence is an Indirect cause for it  , then affluence also becomes a potential disease , Is in’t ? Will WHO include it in ICD listing ?

May I propose Z59.5A to be called  Uncontrolled &  manic desire for affluence ?  Since it is  made at the cost of  fellow humans , it should be clubbed along with poverty as a worrisome disease. Once its included in the ICD manual , I guess it will be unethical to ignore this disease. 

We all aim for growth in life .Nothing wrong in that .There are many facets of life that requires growth. Unfortunately , for most  homo-sapiens ,  growth is synonymous with multiplication of money . . . nothing else seems to matter ! Money when it grows unregulated ,  begins to control you and hijack your  body and mind .

One more issue to  comprehend is , rapid growth of money is possible only at the cost of something (or someone) else – Akin to cancer cachexia ,it depletes the body (Earth ) of it’s resources ( Nature abuse ,  extreme poverty , inequality ,  Third world exploitation , wars, etc ) For the  medical professionals  it is all the more important that growth shouldn’t mean money , as it has a direct and conflicting  impact on some one else’s life  !

mitosis of money 003

Just Imagine ,  if the all the car companies combine together , aim for a  dramatic growth from the current  4 %  to 25 % by 2030  and manage to  achieve it by any means ! . . . This planet will sink in the combined weight of automobile Junk !

It is obvious , uncontrolled growth in any form requires vigorous regulation and  Intervention and will eventually require a radical surgery if the growth goes unabated  !  

Counter point

It is foolish to link growing money and wealth  equivalent to cancer. Unlike cancer cells , money multiplied can be put into use for those in need .It is the principle of charity .But the reality is , human beings who are rabidly after money rarely have this mind set.In contrary the haven’ts have it in plenty. In my opinion, excess money has a dubious  capacity  to  contaminate  human values  ! (Why should some rich and elite opposes affordable health care  to poor ?)

Let us amass wealth and help others . Microsoft  is able to do it. Apple may do it later. What is the need for big companies social responsibility and philanthropy ? If the business worlds  motive and end product  promotes equality and goodness , sans exploitation , the question of charity at a later date never  arises.

Final message

If extreme poverty is a disease ,  forces that Initiates or sustains  poverty cycle can not be a bliss. In this context , the  manic affluence (& the urge for it)  should be included as a communicable disease since it seems to be most contagious as well.

In health care delivery “affluent and modern care” may also connote a sinister meaning. Poor people might think they are deprived of good care because they cant afford it. But ,truth hides deep. True sustainable caring is little to do with affordability+ , since most of the modern health care expenditure is jacked up with junk.

I know in my country people sell their life time assets for what they think as  crucial health care .(Of course universal health care insurance is just beginning to come in. Here again insurance based health care has inflated the actual costs and threatening to impose inappropriate therapies .

As a medical professional we should aim for the cheapest  and best form* of treatment to our patients . Artificially inflating the cost of therapy by worthless drugs, devices, procedures and disseminating them invariably leads to pathological  growth of science.

*If any one thinks “cheap and quality” doesn’t go together in medical care it is ignorance ! Most problems has simple and effective solution.

Post-amble 

*  I object this statement -Modern health is nothing to do with affordability.

We need to go to the basics then .What is true health ? Forget about transplants, Organ Assists, Five star critical care .They seem to work in a minority , but drain the world economy. Its Impact on global health is at best minuscule. One Important analysis say 90% health care cost is wasted in prolonging the last 30 days of life of homo-sapiens.(Will get the reference for it )

Please note 

Diseases that occur to  affluent population  is entirely different topic . Can be found elsewhereDisease of affluence

 

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I am sorry , I hate Hippocratic oath !

Posted in Ethics in Medicine, tagged , , , on July 30, 2017| 1 Comment »

 

Hippocrates is bestowed with the Immortal  tag “Father of Medicine”, not because he invented  any miraculous gene therapy or a modern virtual imaging of human organs, nor did he found any magic drugs .He didn’t receive a single award  even from his local village, forget about any Nobel prize to him !

hippocrates

Mind you , he lived before Christ ,2ooo years ago , there was nothing in the hands of noble professionals, not even a piece of paper and pencil to note down patient’s symptom .They didn’t even know what organs human body contained no basic medical tests . They just had a pair of hand, working brain with six senses , strong will to work hard and most importantly a caring mind and a constant search for answers to lingering scientific queries .

good medical practice hippocrates medical oath ethics drsvenkatesan dr s venkatesan

Yes, Hippocrates is still holding the post of father of medicine because he was the first human  to propagate  thought that human diseases are not evil forces beyond our control, it may have scientific basis , every disease has a specific cause that arise from derangement of body function.

More important than this , he formulated a way to practice this profession in a dignified manner. He also predicted common sense may prevail over science  in innumerable instances. Going through his quotes , one could wonder , he probably predicted technology might hijack human Intellect as well !

hippocrates quotesQuotation-Hippocrates-disease-Meetville-Quotes-149262Now,we have every thing. Students read medicine  in animated 3D class rooms , physicians  get a deluge of body system data &  images beamed straight into their ipad . One can perform  complex interventions with ease in almost every  organ or  even replace it , if it doesn’t work .

Still , as on 2017  ,there is something huge , that is missing  in the Noble profession when compared to ancient days  (2 millenniums before!) when people thronged Hippocrates  clinic in the remote Koss Island of Greece, where he used to sit  with almost  nothing , but was able to offer definite cure for many .

What is that missing link  ? Without realizing  what it is, we enter the Noble profession and fervently  take the  customary Hipocratic oath . For many (or most ?)  of us it is amusing to read and practice that. Life has moved in  fast lane since then. It is a tragic truth , Hippocratic oath  have become  redundant , obsolete .or outright humiliating for few !

Final message 

Whatever you say, still Iam compelled to feel sorry for that “Good old man” who miscalculated the Integrity modern day Noble professional , (I would say, Mr H failed to  realise doctors are also made from ordinary human beings ! )

It’s ok . . . here is a “Doctor’s life maintenance” manual : Keep reading it periodically !

British General medial council , has done a wonderful job . It has published a practical life maintenance and behavioral guide for  doctors  which I feel is most important text to be read periodically and of course  followed  !

Link to Good medical practice

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What ails modern medicine ? When “Nonsense” masquerade as scientific data . . . should “sense” has to leave quietly by back door ?!

Posted in bio ethics, Cardiology quotes, Cardiology research topics, Cardiology Risk assesment, medical quotes, Two line sermons in cardiology, tagged , , on October 16, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Bedside wisdom

We have been  using unfractioned Heparin for long , and its  is better than any other anticoagulants  in ACS . . . 

Our observation shows that Streptokinase has distinct advanatge over Tenektepelase as it works longer duration  . . .

My experience  says Diuretic and beta blockers  are still good as first line therapy for Hypertension  . . .

Mind you , there are infinite  number of such wisdom in every sub specialty of medical field.

However , the typical response from any  modern scientific intellect would be . . .

Stop it . . . Its old  stuff folk  , What does the current data say ?

medical-data-ethics-futility

Common uttering  in scientific forums,

Is there data backing up your  treatment modality ?

Is there sufficient data ?

Come’on , grow up , don’t talk about experience in a scientific forum . . . come out with data man !

No one seem to care the quality of the data . Every one bothers  about the quality of the Author and Journal instead  .  if its X Y Z its ok If its A B C no its not acceptable data.

Probably , Data is most misused word in medical science.

In scientific world,  “unpublished sense” goes straightway to  dustbin ,while we have so many avenues for the  published nonsense to  be celebrated (Still, bulk of guidelines in cardiology is backed up by Level C evidence which means experience  of experts !)

By the way what do we mean by data ?

Its organised collection of genuine scientific information , that’s post processed ,  follow it up with sound inference and faithful questioning and debate that should ultimately end up as  “clinical  application” in patient domain for consumption.(No prizes for guessing , whats happening in real world !)

OMG, give us back that elusive Common sense . . . which  I  think we  lost some time  at the turn of this millennium  !

Wrong or useless data : Who will recall ?

Once applied to patient , these data is  to be scrutinized and monitored . If we find a study conclusion  and reality does not match , we  need to stall the data from adversely  exploding .Every stake holder should have the power to do it. There have been instances a treatment modality got banished in one country is legally permitted in other country knowing fully well the futility.

Final message 

Modern scientific Data* is not God sent. Its  created , synthesised and disseminated in various mind factories. All you require is , backing up with some pioneering journal publication with huge impact factor.It’s not really blasphemy to question things which doesn’t make sense .Unfortunately , wrong data can be tackled only with further data .(There is no other means I guess !)

When does “good common sense”  become hard data and evidence ?

Its the act of publication , so  please guys whenever you  find some contamination  in so-called scientific data  please post here.  To begin with I am registering a new Journal  “Commonsense journal in cardiology”

*Please note, data is not a bad word as this write-up  seem to suggest.Naturally occurring , epidemiological and  observational data about diseases are the foundations for medical science .The issue become murky when few motivated humans play brutal  games at the sensitive  interface between science and truth.

It should be acknowledged , there is a distinct risk  of  this fight against falsehood end up in blocking  true progress  of science . Still , Homo sapiens  are (believed to be !)  intelligent enough to differentiate good from bad , that’s the reason God gave us the sixth sense !

Link to Lown Institute (Started by Cardiologist and Nobel peace prize  Laurate Dr Lown who strives hard to pursue this goal)

Further reading :  Scientific Reversals in cardiology 

1.Vinay Prasad, Adam Cifu,  John Ioannidis  Reversals of Established Medical PracticesEvidence to Abandon Ship   JAMA. 2012;307(1):37-38. 

2.Vinay Prasad Adam Cifu  Interventions that were tried in vain .  Cardiovasc Diagn Ther. 2013 Dec; 3(4): 228–235.

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Is misinterpreting scientific papers an Academic crime ? No, its not, I do it often !

Posted in bio ethics, Medical ethics, medical quotes, medical satistics, tagged , , , , , , , on June 28, 2016| Leave a Comment »

medical ethics stastistics www.drsvenkatesan.com

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