Providers and patients must listen to the evidence

There is an interesting article from ProPublica called “When Evidence Says No, but Doctors say Yes” making the rounds. It’s about the number of doctors who disbelieve, don’t know or don’t care about medical evidence to the detriment of patients. I do not find any fault with the article. I rail against this daily. I have my whole professional life. It is actually a big reason why I blog because I regularly hear: “I didn’t know that,” from providers or “If I had only known,” from patients. I love when people tell me they took in something I wrote to show their provider. I love when a doctor tells me they turned a post into a handout. The sad fact is some doctors don’t learn anything new after residency. Yes, they go to continuing medical education (CME), but they do not learn anything. Here’s one example: I used to lecture very often about herpes testing, which is a little complex, mostly because there is so much mythology. I would lay all the evidence out over 45 minutes, dispel the myths that were never even grounded in science to begin with, and then prepare for the always-present onslaught of questions and shaking heads. At times, I wondered that they might not understand. But they were doctors, and I didn’t see how that could be possible? Were they not listening? Possibly, although many of these lectures were pre-laptops and smartphones, so distractions were minimal. Did they not believe me? Oh, yes. Some would argue with me afterward abou...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Physician Primary care Source Type: blogs