When Professionals Debate over Medical Care, We Typically Win

 

Doctors say the public should understand while information on best practices in medical care may change over time and/or in some cases the medical community is not speaking with one voice; it is not necessarily a bad thing. Rather it is often a result of new research and scientific facts surfacing changing the debate and the messaging. 

Nowhere have we seen more changes evolve in medical recommendations and advice than over the last year in regard to COVID-19. Experts explain this is an excellent example of new information coming in over a period of time that updated our knowledge of an unknown virus, which had rapidly spread across the globe before we had learned much about it. In a recent article in the U.S. News & World Report, Dr. Neel Anand, M.D., says, “It isn't new or unique to COVID-19. To be honest, debate among scientists and medical experts is precisely how the targeted and most effective therapies and treatments develop.”

Medical progress evolves much like other scientific progress, and involves formulating a hypothesis and then setting out to prove or disprove it. Healthy debate helps to move us forward and typically the end result is good for our own medical care. However Dr. Anand cautions if scientific debate is going to be useful in advancing medicine, it requires real experts. For example, he says as a doctor specializing in spinal surgery, he would not consider it fruitful to debate the specifics of spinal surgery from someone who isn’t a qualified physician or researcher in the field.  

This is why doctors and scientists have often disagreed or changed guidelines on COVID-19 as well as on other medical conditions and illnesses. Doctors say it is an example of how the scientific process works, which allows them to make better decisions regarding care.

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Source: health.usnews.com/health-care/for-better/articles/debate-in-medicine-is-good-for-everyone