3 ms·

> medicine is actually closer to the dark ages than we like to think it is I'm not sure it's entirely on point, but ever since my mother was almost murdered by

> medicine is actually closer to the dark ages than we like to think it is I'm not sure it's entirely on point, but ever since my mother was almost murdered by medical malpractice, and then learning about exactly how bad (frequent and severe) medical malpractice is, it's extremely hard for me to not see it this way. Somewhere close to 300,000 people die a year from medical malpractice, give or take ~50k! Even adjusting for the elderly and comorbidities the number is still huge. I don't know why I never did, but it keep thinking I need to go buy and read Bruce Schneiers book about outliers[1]... it seems crazy how much we ignore much more concrete and repeated issues that cause death and love to focus on outliers that will probably never happen to us. 1. https://www.amazon.com/Liars-Outliers-Enabling-Society-Thrive/dp/1118143302 https://www.amazon.com/Liars-Outliers-Enabling-Society-Thriv...

fwip 6y ago
This common factoid isn't actually true. The real number is almost certainly less than 10,000 people even with a generous definition, and probably closer to a few hundred annually. Further reading: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/are-medical-errors-really-the-third-most-common-cause-of-death-in-the-u-s-2019-edition/ https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/are-medical-errors-really-t... Takeaway: > (1) [Adverse Effects of Medical Treatment] are not uncommon; (2) the vast majority of AEMTs that occur in patients who die aren’t the primary cause of death; (3) only a relatively small fraction of AEMTs are due to misadventure or medical error; and (4) population-adjusted AEMT rates have been slowly decreasing
- arminiusreturns 6y ago
  Well thank you for giving me a different view, now I'm going to have to dig deeper on this. I would say at first glance I already see some methodological cracks, but thanks for the rabbit hole anyway.

fwip 6y ago

This common factoid isn't actually true. The real number is almost certainly less than 10,000 people even with a generous definition, and probably closer to a few hundred annually. Further reading: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/are-medical-errors-really-the-third-most-common-cause-of-death-in-the-u-s-2019-edition/ https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/are-medical-errors-really-t... Takeaway: > (1) [Adverse Effects of Medical Treatment] are not uncommon; (2) the vast majority of AEMTs that occur in patients who die aren’t the primary cause of death; (3) only a relatively small fraction of AEMTs are due to misadventure or medical error; and (4) population-adjusted AEMT rates have been slowly decreasing

arminiusreturns 6y ago
Well thank you for giving me a different view, now I'm going to have to dig deeper on this. I would say at first glance I already see some methodological cracks, but thanks for the rabbit hole anyway.