We all expect doctors to make us well but can they do harm?
Dr. Otis Webb Brawley, the chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society wrote, “How We Do Harm: A Doctor Beaks Ranks About Being Sick In America”.
He describes the ways in which the whole medical system is broken and who is responsible.
Spoiler: We all are.
It is amazing the number of health care professionals who seemingly reject the scientific method. They prescribe treatments they believe to be appropriate as opposed to therapies that are known to be appropriate based on objective scientific evidence. This form of ignorance is a root cause of much of the overuse of medical therapy.
Too often, doctors fail to distinguish what is scientifically known from what is unknown, from what is believed. This is beyond mere disagreement about interpretation of the science. There is often selective reading of the science, especially by those trained in a specialty wanting to advocate for it.
