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Can Good Doctors Be Bad for Your Health?

nytimes.com

71–73 of 73 posts

Re: Can Good Doctors Be Bad for Your Health?

#71
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It was pretty obvious to me that when they used the term "good doctor" they meant better by some objective criteria that many people use as a proxy for "doctor whose actions benefit patients". But those doctors aren't better by those objective criteria [1]; that's the whole point. Their patients do worse, on average, by objective criteria. So they aren't "good doctors" in the sense that patients care about. They ar…

The objective criteria that the study uses to separate doctors into "good"(as it is used in the title) and bad was "goes to cardiologist conferences". The good doctor the title refers to is one that attends a cardiologist conference.

> The good doctor the title refers to is one that attends a cardiologist conference.

And this is supposed to be the "objective criteria" that, in your words, many people use as a proxy for "doctor whose actions benefit patients"? That makes no sense to me; I doubt most people even know what conferences, if any, their cardiologist (or any other doctor) goes to. Nor do I see the article claiming that "attending conferences" is an objective criterion that patients use.

Re: Can Good Doctors Be Bad for Your Health?

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had the same thing happen when I broke my hand. The first doctor wanted to fill it with metal. A second opinion with a more conservative doctor caused me to avoid that surgery, and it healed just fine. I encountered the same egregious attitude when cancelling the appointment. It made me realize all the more that it was a attempted money grab, with no real concern for my wellbeing. It was quite the learning experience…

This is why I hate going to the doctor in Manhattan. The doctors are either: (a) decidedly mediocre / horrible because most good ones are going to be rational and leave to another part of the country where they aren't below middle class and subject to a malpractice lawsuit around every corner, or (b) have money on their minds at all times (like anyone in NYC really) and will always recommend the (profitable) procedur…

I'm lucky to have found (d) a very good doctor with good morals who's on my insurance. This was years ago, and I've since moved away, but have developed some RSI issues in my other hand. I drive three cities over to still see him, because the peace of mind is worth it to me.

Re: Can Good Doctors Be Bad for Your Health?

#73
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That study was on hospitals though - although yes the same applies for surgeons (1), and obstetricians [although the benefits begin to deteriorate at around 50 (2)]. But cardiologists were what the original study was on, and they don't perform surgery. Rather, they are relied on for their "expert judgement", a highly questionable concept (3). (1) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1743919113... (2) htt…

Sorry yes, wasn't saying anything about cardiologists, just wanted to point out that surgery might be different. I'm familiar with the second study you mention there - I'd take it with a large grain of salt! It highlights the issues with so many medical studies and how hard they are to get right with limited data. The study attempts to generalize surgeon performance based on age for only 22 surgeons that did 'enough'…

Ah, good point. That's why I try to stick to reviews or meta-analysis, but was too lazy to look more that time, especially since it sounded right. Do you know at what age surgical skill starts to drop due to aging? I found a review that talked about how older surgeons stop taking on more challenging cases, which was interesting - but it didn't mention anything about that.
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