Would You Buy a Car the Way You Buy Medical Care?
I was at book club the other night, pouring another glass of Chardonnay, when my friend told me that in August she was diagnosed with three blocked arteries, one of which is 100 percent blocked. I could rant about the fact that she’s been walking around like this for three months with only a beta blocker and statin as treatment, but that’s fodder for another blog.
When I talked to her she had an appointment with a cardiologist in our area. “Oh, he’s wonderful,” she said. because that’s what she’d heard from other people. What she didn’t realize, however, is that “wonderful” doesn’t mean good. She didn’t know how often he performed the procedure she might need; how well his patients did with or without surgery; what ties he might have to the pharmaceutical or medical device industry that could bias his recommendations; if he’d had any malpractice suits against him and how they’d turned out.
Choosing a doctor based only on what your friends tell you is like buying a car based on its color, something few of us would do. Instead, we research cars to find out which gets the best gas mileage, its safety record, its cost. … Continue Reading