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Over the last decade there has been a massive influx of health care information into the public domain through the internet. Physicians have responded to the increase in public information by entering into a collaborative relationship with well-informed patients. Gone are the days where “The doctor knows best.” Today many clinicians prefer working with well-informed patients to come up with best treatment options. In health care it is sometimes called “empowering the patient.”

A few years ago my baby daughter underwent surgery to fix a displaced hip. The surgery was successful, but my daughter still needed regular x-rays to check the position of her hip. On one visit the orthopedic surgeon wanted to do a 360 degree CAT scan to check the placement of the hip. Now she is a very competent surgeon, and equally important, she is a good communicator. I felt comfortable expressing my concern with subjecting the hip to high levels of radiation from the CAT scan. There had already been plenty of x-rays, and I wanted to minimize irradiating the hip. The surgeon respected my opinion and, after some discussion, presented an alternative that everyone was happy with.

Unfortunately, there is a sinister side to our health care information age. It has perpetuated health care conspiracies. You probably know someone who is very skeptical about the health care profession. You’ve probably heard someone say that health care wants to keep people sick because revenue comes from sick people. These attitudes are not only misleading, they are damaging.

Last week I talked with one of my brothers who is a physician. He said that occasionally he encounters people who do not want to take medication because they think it is not God’s will, or they are “suspicious” toward the medical profession because of something they read on the web. I also talked with my sister who is a labor and delivery nurse. She said that occasionally she encounters couples who reject medical advice for the same reasons. In my sister’s case, extreme skepticism has led to infant deaths and injuries.

As I explain in my book Truth and Science, modern science is a gift from God. Notwithstanding the pitfalls of modern health care, God has given us medical and pharmaceutical discoveries to prolong people’s lives in the latter days. Skeptics and conspiracy theorists may fail to realize that the medicine or technology that can improve their quality of life may be a gift from God or an answer to their prayers.

When interacting with the medical profession, I say get informed, get involved, and recognize God's blessings.

 


Comments

Jason C

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 4:05:00 pm

In my research of the pharmaceuticals industry, I might be inclined to accept conspiracy theories. What do you think about the claims that point to powerful drug company lobbyists, linking this activity to the FDA apparently rushing dangerous drugs to the market? This is not saying that they have an interest in us being sick, but that it may be possible that drug companies are lining the politicians' pockets for the priveleges of rushing their products onto the unsuspecting public.

Being an informed patient does have its benefits...pediatrician prescribed Phenylbarbitol for my infant daughter's minor temporal lobe seizures. I weighed up the side effects with the likelihood that the seizures would subside as she grew up. I told the pediatrician, "no thanks." My daughter has been thriving ever since.

 

Dave C.

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 7:40:28 pm

There is plenty of politicking and hoodwinking in the pharmaceutical industry. As you say, FDA fast tracking of drugs through the 4 levels of experimental research has created a lot of problems for consumers. I think these and other problems stem from the fact that pharmaceuticals are driven by profits.
President Obama recently pointed to Intermountain Healthcare In SLC, UT as an example of providing good care at low cost. It spends only slightly more than Canadian healthcare does on each patient. I think Intermountain's non-profit status makes a difference.
You personal research saved your daughter from taking a drug she did not need, a great example of patient empowerment.

 

S.Faux

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 4:45:22 am

Knowledge is power, and patients should be thinking individuals, willing to exert their will. Sometimes, however, the medical community resists that notion.

Last year I was hospitalized four days for some minor heart problems (ironically caused by some heart medication I was taking). After all the medical testing was finished and there was little progress to be had, I told the head nurse that I was checking out of the hospital. She said, "You cannot do that." In front of my Home Teacher (with an emotion he had never seen in me before) I told the head nurse in a stern tone, "I will give you two hours to fill out the paperwork for me leaving against medical advice, and then I am walking out the door." She did, and I did.

As a believer in medical science I am willing to comply to a point, but there are boundaries. I never let physicians and nurses take an omnipotent tone with me. Further, I make them justify (in medical language that I understand) why a certain procedure is being pursued.

The good news is that my wife and my older boys have well learned this form of "patient individuality." I am confident their lack of patient passivity will serve them well. In fact, it has multiple times.

 

Dave C.

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:06:06 am

S.Faux, thanks for your input.
I smiled as I read your experience because you are not the only well-informed PhD that an clinician has butt heads with. I remember one of my stats professors sharing a similar story. When he disagreed with something his physician said, the doc replied, "Well, I am the doctor." Then my professor replied, "What? I am the doctor!" I think my professor was trying to get let his MD know that he should not talk down to a PhD.
Anyway, I commend you for taking a stand and doing what you felt was best. I am afraid that too many people acquiesce to everything their health care providers say.

 

Fay

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 5:33:04 pm

I don't completely trust the medical establishment. Two years ago I broke my left wrist; I did "a good job on it", as the orthopaedist said. I broke the ulna, radius, and rearranged some of the metacarpals in the middle. However, it was a closed fracture. The ER doc put a splint on it, and two days later I went to see the doctor who would, I hoped, set my wrist, put on a cast, and be done with it. Unfortunately that's not the way it works nowadays. Every broken bone now requires an operation so pins and metal plates can be inserted. I know this is sometimes necessary when bones are badly shattered, but the more I researched the more convinced I became that I didn't need surgery. The first doctor said it was surgery or nothing. I said "It's nothing" and left. I then found a doctor who said surgery would be best, but if I absolutely didn't want it, he'd treat me. Today my wrist is fine. I have perfect use of it. The only evidence of the break is a small lump on the side of my wrist, a purely cosmetic thing. I'm glad I didn't let myself get pushed into an unnecessary operation. Oh, I have a Ph.D., too. One of my professors told me, "When you get a Ph.D. you won't know everything, but you'll know how to find the answer." So true.

 

Dave C.

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:58:31 am

Fay,

I had the same experience when I broke my elbow 7 years ago. One orthopedic surgeon said "operate" while another who I consulted for a second opinion said "don't operate."

I went with the second opinion and it was the right choice. I had an x-ray a couple of years ago and my primary care doc said it looked great (without surgery). I can't do push ups without it hurting, but no big loss there.

These sorts of stories really drive home the message that there is much subjective opinion in medicine and that it really helps to get informed.

 

Mike

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 7:00:17 am

(Sorry for posting this twice to two different articles, I wasn't paying careful attention)

OTOH, I know for a fact that several doctors who performed their 'modern miracles' upon me were sadly mistaken in both their diagnosis and their recommendations for treatment. Modern science is all well and good, but let us not suppose that any alternatives are miguided and ignorant. Wasn't modern medicine itself at one time in history an 'alternative' approach? Let's not be too hasty in condemning those pioneers who happen to find alternatives to allopathic medicine.

It was just over a century ago that Oxford and Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania prominently featured bloodletting as a healthful practice for nearly every complaint one might wish to treat. Dr. Benjamin Rush prescribed injurious substances for the Lewis and Clark expedition. We may believe ourselves to be on the cusp of modern evolution, but as the wisdom of the ages has shown, it is all vanity.

 

Dave C.

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:22:18 am

Mike,

The Book of Mormon reminds us that God created plants and herbs etc. for healing bodies. I think it most unfortunate that modern medicine has largely ignored this other area of healing. For me a step in the right direction would be allowing novel efficacious alternative approaches to be pattented for a few years so that alternative medical researchers can recoup their costs. (This is what drives pharmaceutical research.)

 

Mike

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 4:43:00 am

Agreed. I believe many people have benefited from combinations of phytonutrients and vitamins and these have been superior treatments to the prescriptions they might have been receiving instead.

 

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