Tuesday, February 02, 2010
As you’re probably well aware, the U.S. Preventive Task Force released new breast cancer screening guidelines last November. And the ensuing furor highlighted a huge issue, one that will only become more and more prominent as America’s health-care delivery system makes its way down the ro...
Thanks PJ. I really appreciate your outline of the head vs heart issue over evidence based medicine. You write so clearly, and I like how you admit that you find it hard yourself to take a side. It will be interesting to watch the debate unfold, but given our limited resources I fear that governments and the medical institutions will go wherever statistics take them. I know I am not alone, as a survivor, who finds being treated like a stat inhuman, unfocused and plain old disgusting. If only the heart could win.
If only... I'm with you 100%, Jo-Ann. If money weren't an issue, so much would be different. But alas, it is; and so the battle rages on. I keep coming back to, most people are happy to go by the stats until suddenly they (or their mom, or child) IS a stat - and then it's "Wait a minute... This isn't fair!" When the numbers turn into family, people have a sudden change of heart. PJH