Medical Knowledge: Self Reliance is the Key to Quality Care

Consider this: The medical knowledge your doctor relies on to treat you is incomplete, and sometimes, just plain wrong. Those who are self reliant spend the time doing their own medical research, so they can accurately judge the quality of the care they receive from their physician.

So why don’t doctors have accurate information?   To begin, as would be expected, doctors rely on the information they learned in medical school to treat patients.  However, after years in practice, that information is often outdated.

So doctors try to keep up by reading the current medical research.  But this source of information has been shown to be unreliable. Dr. John Ioannidis, an expert on medical bias, has written extensively about the flaws found in medical research. He has estimated that as much as 90 percent of the medical research doctors rely on to treat patients is flawed.

But surely doctors can read the research themselves and draw conclusions? Not necessarily. Many doctors don’t have enough free time to read every study on every topic. So they rely on abstracts. An abstract is a summary paragraph included with each medical study published. It’s supposed to give the reader a quick overview of the study results. The problem is that these abstracts may or may not reflect the actual results of the study, and often in drug research, the abstract may communicate the exact opposite of what the study data actually show.

As a trusted alternative to reading every study themselves, most doctors rely on and completely trust the medical journals which publish peer written articles discussing the latest research.  Surveys show that physicians return to these journals over and over for guidance, and are more likely to write trial prescriptions of drugs that were advertised in these journals.

Unfortunately, in 2009, the New York Times reported that the articles published in the top medical journals are often written by “ghost writers” who work for pharmaceutical companies or other businesses with vested interests in spinning the data.  In other words, the prestigious medical journals that physicians trust sometimes publish articles that aren’t trustworthy.

In addition to flawed information sources, physician arrogance and boredom can effect the care you receive. For example, when a patient’s complaint is a “routine” problem, such as heartburn, the doctor has no reason to look at the causes closely.  The cause of heartburn is well known, the doctor thinks, and so there is no motivation to look at new data.

At the end of the day, all of these influences point to the fact that the care and advice you get from your physician might not be reflective of the latest research or the best for your health. Since your health and physical well-being are so critical to a happy life, obtaining the proper medical knowledge on your health issues should be a critical component of your personal health care plan.

Here are a few tips on how to get the medical knowledge you need to get the best health care possible:

• Do your own research on whatever health issue you are experiencing. Go to www.pubmed.gov and look for the most current research on that particular topic.
• Get a copy of the Physicians’ Desk Reference or go to their website to find out the facts about drugs your doctor wants to prescribe.
• Read books on your particular health issue, and search for other people discussing your issue on the internet. These people may have already done research from which you can benefit. There may even be forums on your health issue on which you can ask questions and find more information.
• If your doctor disparages your knowledge, or ignores your questions and concerns, find another doctor who will work with you to provide the care you want.

The bottom line is that it’s up to you to make sure that you have the medical knowledge you need to judge the quality of the care you receive. When you speak to your doctor, you should know as much as he or she knows about your ailment, so that you can judge the quality of the information and care being given. Only then will you know that you are receiving the best care possible.

In my next post, I’ll talk about heartburn, and why it’s a poster child for the idea of doing your own medical research.
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Ellen Davis is the author of www.healthy-eating-politics.com and is a strong believer in self knowledge and self reliance, especially when it comes to personal health care.  You can find more tips on being medically self reliant on her Medical Knowledge page.