Tuesday, March 29, 2011

BLOGSCAN: The Place Where the Compass Spins

The 1 Boring Old Man blog is on a roll.  Read this summary post, see its amazing introduction below, then peruse the main page and the archives:
At the North Pole, the magnetic compass apparently spins at random, not knowing where to point. Is it because there’s no North? or is North everywhere? That’s the way I feel about this Atypical Antipsychotic story I’ve been preoccupied with for a couple of months. It’s like everyone’s walking around with a compass that doesn’t work any more. The Pharmaceutical Companies involved have forgotten what their products are used for. Many doctors seem to have forgotten why they became doctors. Whole industries have sprung up [Clinical Research Organizations, Clinical Research Centers, Medical Writing companies, etc] without being clear about what they’re even involved in. One has to move away from it all to avoid getting caught up in the confusion and becoming as blind as the other players. Once you get far enough away, it’s tempting to forget that it’s even there, that place where the compasses don’t work anymore.

2 comments:

Afraid said...

Beautiful words.

Words matter, but not so much.

Anonymous said...

Here is another doctor lamenting the over use of medicine:

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/03/treatment-plantar-fasciitis-expensive-ineffective.html

He also reinforces a point I have been trying to make for a long time:

The reported cost of any procedure does not reflect the true economic cost to society. Patients time, visits to other medical providers, and even the cost of processing the insurance forms all add to the overall medical cost we incur as a nation.

Steve Lucas