"Yeah, yeah - but we have the best healthcare in the world. Be happy. Stop questioning your doctors - what do you know?"
Complaining, talking about the importance of data, using the word "evidence-based" gets people (me) into all sorts of trouble. My own doctors take a jaundiced view of my interest in the evidence behind their recommendations. My friends' eyes glaze over when I ask them if they have researched their own diagnosis or gone for a second opinion. But the problem isn't the tyranny of data, it's the willful ignoring of it. And here is an excellent explanation of why we do "...physicians frequently base their decisions on shortcuts, such as the actions of the average practitioner ("if everyone is doing it, the intervention must be appropriate"); the commonness of the disease ("if the disease is common, we have no choice but to use whatever treatment is available"); the seriousness of the outcome ("if the outcome without treatment is very bad, we have to assume the treatment will work"); the need to do something ("this intervention is all we have"); and the novelty or technical appeal of the intervention ("if the machine takes a pretty picture, it must have some use").
Every single of the bolded items above apply to eating disorder care. I wish everyone who is puzzled by my droning on about "evidence-based" will read that article to understand why.
"Yeah, yeah - but we have the best healthcare in the world. Be happy. Stop questioning your doctors - what do you know?"
Complaining, talking about the importance of data, using the word "evidence-based" gets people (me) into all sorts of trouble. My own doctors take a jaundiced view of my interest in the evidence behind their recommendations. My friends' eyes glaze over when I ask them if they have researched their own diagnosis or gone for a second opinion. But the problem isn't the tyranny of data, it's the willful ignoring of it. And here is an excellent explanation of why we do
"...physicians frequently base their decisions on shortcuts, such as the actions of the average practitioner ("if everyone is doing it, the intervention must be appropriate"); the commonness of the disease ("if the disease is common, we have no choice but to use whatever treatment is available"); the seriousness of the outcome ("if the outcome without treatment is very bad, we have to assume the treatment will work"); the need to do something ("this intervention is all we have"); and the novelty or technical appeal of the intervention ("if the machine takes a pretty picture, it must have some use").
Every single of the bolded items above apply to eating disorder care. I wish everyone who is puzzled by my droning on about "evidence-based" will read that article to understand why.