IS FAKE NEWS TAKING OVER MEDICINE?
I just happened to catch KEVIN M.D.’s post by guest blogger Dr. Matthew Anderson a couple days ago called If You Think Fake News is Bad for Politics, You Should Try Being a Physician. Some of the things the good doctor specifically mentioned as being a big deal in the “Fake News” scene in medicine included NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS (he talked about Ginko and Vanadyl Sulfate by name), APPLE CIDER VINEGAR, and vaccines — especially VACCINES as related to AUTISM (“A quick look at Twitter for #vaccines, and the news of vaccination harms is overwhelming.” — I wonder why?).
Anderson went on to tell his readers how he combats this disgusting problem. “As a physician, I try to be a steward of medical information. I want my patients to seek out good quality medical information on their own. I steer them to reputable websites…” Which begs the question — what constitutes a “reputable” website? WebMD? Yeahright.
We could spend a day answering the previous question, but I want you to forget about it for now — it’s not important to the real topic at hand. Like so many articles on the web, the best part of Dr. Anderson’s article was the comment section.
It’s uncanny how his readers — most of which are obviously doctors or individuals who at least work in the medical community — brought up some of the very same things that I’ve brought up on numerous occasions in the EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE (EBM) section of my site. For fun, just click the link and skim the titles. The comments pertained to….
- There were several sarcastic / frustrated comments pertaining to EHR’s (Electronic Health Records) as well as MARCA & MIPS.
- Doctors are so buried in said paperwork they can’t even look at their patients for the crazy amount of typing they are doing to document a routine office visit (HERE).
- Professor “BigDwag” (probably a researcher of some sort) ripped the entire medical system every which way but loose (HERE).
- The fact that most medical news is itself fake (start thumbing titles of my posts on EBM as I couldn’t possibly list them all). In fact one poster who identified himself as an MD stated, “According to Ionaddis, almost everything you read in journals is fake news too. I expect patients to be misinformed, I used to not expect academics and publishers to constantly lie, fudge and misrepresent to advance their careers. It is very hard for the average doctor to differentiate between medical research, and crazy nonsense. The doctor in practice should not read any original research. Odds are it will lead to mistakes.” For the articles I’ve written about Drs. IOANNIDIS and ANGELL, click the links.
- The FDA doesn’t follow their own rules and regs.
- Drug companies are frequently a huge scam (the commenters mentioned PFIZER by name, but could have mentioned ANY NUMBER of others).
- The fact that Diabetes care is not in any way, shape, or form, “evidence-based” (HERE, HERE, or HERE).
- Mercola (a DO) and Axe (a DC) are, “dangerous crackpots“. I suppose I would fall into that category as well.
- One commenter thanked the author for “educating” her about Vandyl Sulfate so that she could start taking it for her DIABETES.
- The fact that studies reveal that many, if not most, doctors are so BURNED OUT by all this daily crap they would quit tomorrow and retire if they were financially able.
- And finally, the author himself admitted that, “I agree, we as physicians do not self-police well enough. That includes healthcare policy as well.” Judging from the comments, I would say this answer (healthcare policy, i.e MEDICAL GUIDELINES) is an understatement of epic proportions). Truthfully, this author was barking up the wrong tree for the substance of this article. His patients using vinegar or Ginko is the last thing in the world he needs to worry about.
The bottom line is this folks; as the government tries harder and harder to put the practice of medicine under its thumb via any and all means possible, the quality of your care will continue to erode. It has to.
If your doctor wakes up every morning dreading his / her job, they might be able to fake that smile for a while, but it won’t be very long before the apathy starts shining through and the quality of their work goes south. It’s a bad enough scenario for anyone and any job, but if you are putting people’s lives in your hands as a treating physician, it’s downright dangerous.