Science and medicine are seemingly at constant odds

In the mid-1800s, Ignaz Semmelweis, then a professor at Johns Hopkins, proposed something outrageous: Doctors and medical students working in the maternity ward should wash their hands before delivering babies because doing so could reduce infant mortality. For proof, he performed a rigorous experiment that showed babies delivered by midwives, who traditionally did wash their hands prior to deliveries, had rate of death that was five-fold lower than those delivered by doctors. He was met with incredulity and scathe from his medical colleagues, who ostracized him and denounced his findings. With no one believing his data, he obsessively and desperately tried to convince anyone of his findings and eventually swirled into depression. He was committed to an asylum where he died an undignified death from sepsis, the very illness he tried to prevent. Imagine that: Sterility, now considered foundational to proper medical care with hand sanitizers mounted every few feet in hospital hallways, took decades and the findings of Louie Pasteur and Joseph Lister to finally convince the medical community. Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Conditions Medical school OB/GYN Source Type: blogs