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A timely reminder that although doctors aspire to follow science, and many doctors are scientists, and most doctors advocate evidence-based medicine, the practi
by jl6 1y ago
A timely reminder that although doctors aspire to follow science, and many doctors are scientists, and most doctors advocate evidence-based medicine, the practice of medicine is not a wholly scientific field, and particularly the big associations like the AAP are vulnerable to groupthink just like any big org.
- dragonwriter 1y agoAlso, science is persistently incomplete, and actually making decisions (or advice) requires making assumptions (often, neutral ones, but that can turn out to be quite wrong) about what is in the unfilled gaps. The advice to avoid peanuts was because it was clear that severe peanut allergies existed, it was clear that they affected a small fraction of children, and it was clear than when they affected very young children, those children weren't able to let people know what was going on as well as older children and adults to enable timely intervention. There wasn't much information one way or the other on what avoidance did as far impacting development of allergies, and with the evidence available, delaying exposure seemed prudent.
- philipallstar 1y ago> and many doctors are scientists Is this true? What percentage of doctors are scientists?
- roguecoder 1y agoHow do you define "scientist"? Medical education includes training in research methods.