Central PA Medicine Spring 2021 - 20

dauphincms.org
ms .
Features
In so many fields of human endeavor,
observations. Good medical decisions
should be free of bias, which helps to
reduce placebo effects. These decisions
made by doctors must also show a statistical
significance. If you have pneumonia, you
want your doctor to prescribe the antibiotic
that kills your bacteria 94% of the time,
not 24%.
Health care workers try to avoid reliance
on testimonials ( " my chronic headaches got
much better after I started taking Vitamin
X " ). These are subject to bias, chance,
and inaccuracy, as are the more extended
anecdotal studies (when over 100 patients
took Vitamin X at the start of a winter cold,
90% of them got better within one week, so
20 Spring 2021 Central PA Medicine
Vitamin X must be a helpful treatment for
the common cold). These types of studies
are highly subjective.
We try to search for medical truths
utilizing " double-blind, placebo-controlled "
studies. These experiments compare a
treatment to a placebo, to determine if that
intervention triggers an action statistically
better than the placebo. Additionally,
neither the testers nor the test subjects
know who is getting which treatment. This
leads to all participants being dealt with
uniformly, which cuts down on potential
bias. In these studies, higher numbers of
subjects lead to more conclusive data.
there are individuals who are considered to
be smarter, more creative and more skillful
than others, be it music, aerospace engineering,
physics, computer science, or acting
on Broadway. Practicing physicians don't
just make things up based solely on their
opinion. We work as a team with referrals
to other doctors who know more than us
about something, such as a cardiologist
seeking the input of a dermatologist for an
unexplained rash. We look up to doctors
who have shown expertise in their field and
are involved in cutting edge research. You
can bet your last dollar that the Chairman
of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic likely
knows a lot more about neurology than
over 99% of local physicians as a whole.
With all of this in mind, it is plausible
to conclude that health care workers are
telling factual statements in a very large
percentage of time, rather than personal
opinions or blatantly incorrect ideas. How
should patients determine if their doctor
is telling the " truth " about something they
doubt? Ask them to briefly elaborate on
their conclusions and recommendations,
to be sure they seem scholarly and not
haphazard. When investigating health
issues, look to reliable sources, not anonymous
strangers on Facebook, who can
type anything they'd like as if it were
fact. Truth should be backed up by unbiased
observations, measurable statistics,
and critical logic. While science changes
from year to year, this does not imply that
a concept is wrong for its time. Overall,
doctors overwhelmingly work with fact
over unproven opinions.
We all need to be deliberate in our decisions
about what is likely to be the truth and
what is an alternate opinion or is just plain
wrong. There is one thing that I solemnly
assure you is a fact....say what you want
about the COVID-19 vaccine, but there
is no logical reason to fear that it contains
sub-molecular liquified microchips that
will be used by the government to track
our whereabouts and alter our minds.
http://www.dauphincms.org
Central PA Medicine Spring 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Central PA Medicine Spring 2021
