And Just Like That, Doctors Have Their Autonomy Back

American Thnker.com ^ | April 11, 2022 | Brian C. Joondeph, MD

[Kaslin]

Physicians in America go through many years of training before they are ready to practice independently, often a decade or longer. This includes four years of medical school after four years of college, then a minimum of three years of residency training for primary care and up to six or seven years for many medical and surgical subspecialties.

Medical knowledge changes rapidly, like the technology in your smart phone. According to Harvard Medical School,

In science, the term “half-life” refers to the time it takes for a quantity of a substance to reduce itself by one-half. Today, the half-life of medical knowledge is currently about 18-24 months, and it is projected that in about four years that half-life will be only 73 days.

This means that most of what medical students learn early in medical school will be obsolete before they graduate, the same for residents from the beginning to the end of their residency program. This is why physicians learn on the job, gaining wisdom from their observations and experiences, changing their practices accordingly.

Hence the popularity of off-label treatments, reflecting new knowledge gained long after the on-label treatment was developed, or FDA approved. This is how physicians remain on the cutting edge, by innovating and growing in a thoughtful and scientific way, not simply doctors playing cowboy and experimenting on their patients.

The COVID pandemic brought this to light. Diagnostic and therapeutic protocols were developed by the behemoth medical and government bureaucracies at the pace one would expect from such organizations. Where are we on early outpatient treatment, designed to keep early and mild cases out of the hospital and ICU, where the risk of death and disability rises dramatically?

[mewzilla]

...Unfortunately, a heavy-handed government is corrupting the medical system, many professionals afraid to speak out or resist for fear of losing their reputations or their livelihoods...

Which is now why I have more respect for used car dealers than I do healthcare professionals.

[ClearCase_guy]

I respect tradesmen who come to my house to work on my plumbing or my electrical outlets. I respect medical people precisely that much. No more. They have some skills that I don’t have, but they aren’t special. And they better not act like they are.

[Jim Noble]

This means that most of what medical students learn early in medical school will be obsolete before they graduate, the same for residents from the beginning to the end of their residency program

SSDD

Life is short, the Art, long
The occasion fleeting
Experiment dangerous
And decision difficult.

Hippocrates, 390 BC

[TalBlack]

Autonomy that can be removed isnt autonomy.

[Mogger]

The protocol system has become too rigid.

Needs to be a "suggestion".

[joshua c]

Saw that eric adams, mayor of nyc, tested positive and was on anti-virals

hmmm, is ivermectin now allowed to be prescribed in ny?

[CoastWatcher]

This means that most of what medical students learn early in medical school will be obsolete before they graduate, the same for residents from the beginning to the end of their residency program.

Really, MOST of what they learn will be obsolete in less than 2 years.
What hogwash! Oh and the world will end in 8.33 years so why worry.