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If science advances one funeral at a time, what can be done about institutions that insist on bing wrong? The American Heart Association has a lot to answer for

If science advances one funeral at a time, what can be done about institutions that insist on bing wrong? The American Heart Association has a lot to answer for. Sometimes doctors do good work, sometimes their training leaves much to be desired.

Y_Y 9y ago
The irony being that worse medicine should lead to more funerals, and hence better medicine.
- firethief 9y ago
  In the long run, worse medicine can only lead to fewer funerals (at least, until the life extension singularity).
kiliantics 9y ago
> their training leaves much to be desired As someone who teaches pre-med students, I can attest to this! When I see their performance in my class and realise they are trying to become doctors and surgeons, I shudder to imagine being treated by them. I think easily 80% don't show enough competence at that point to have my trust in their abilities. I teach them a required experimental physics class and believe doctors should have a scientific mentality when it comes to treatment but very few come out appreciating the scientific method and how to approach empirical problems. I fear many will just end up treating patients with a cookie-cutter approach and cashing in.
- ams6110 9y ago
  Isn't it the case that every common diagnosis has an established "reasonable and prudent" treatment? It seems to me that the main skill of a doctor is making the correct diagnosis. Once that's done, treatment (at least in the vast majority of cases) is going to be perfunctory. And even the diagnosis itself is going to be, in most cases, the "most likely" condition that explains the patient's symptoms.
  - tcj_phx 9y ago
    Sometimes a diagnosis is useful, sometimes it's a useless (harmful) simplification. People are always more complex than their diagnosis. Specialists have a stranglehold on medicine: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/opinion/sunday/the-specialists-stranglehold-on-medicine.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/opinion/sunday/the-specia...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

Y_Y 9y ago

The irony being that worse medicine should lead to more funerals, and hence better medicine.

firethief 9y ago
In the long run, worse medicine can only lead to fewer funerals (at least, until the life extension singularity).

kiliantics 9y ago

> their training leaves much to be desired As someone who teaches pre-med students, I can attest to this! When I see their performance in my class and realise they are trying to become doctors and surgeons, I shudder to imagine being treated by them. I think easily 80% don't show enough competence at that point to have my trust in their abilities. I teach them a required experimental physics class and believe doctors should have a scientific mentality when it comes to treatment but very few come out appreciating the scientific method and how to approach empirical problems. I fear many will just end up treating patients with a cookie-cutter approach and cashing in.

ams6110 9y ago
Isn't it the case that every common diagnosis has an established "reasonable and prudent" treatment? It seems to me that the main skill of a doctor is making the correct diagnosis. Once that's done, treatment (at least in the vast majority of cases) is going to be perfunctory. And even the diagnosis itself is going to be, in most cases, the "most likely" condition that explains the patient's symptoms.
- tcj_phx 9y ago
  Sometimes a diagnosis is useful, sometimes it's a useless (harmful) simplification. People are always more complex than their diagnosis. Specialists have a stranglehold on medicine: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/opinion/sunday/the-specialists-stranglehold-on-medicine.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/opinion/sunday/the-specia...
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]