I was quite startled to get Mr. Aase’s comment. This website is still very much in the experimental stage. I didn’t even know anyone other than me was reading it!
The Mayo Clinic does an exceptional job of educating the public about health issues. I recommend you make their website your first port of call whenever you want to research a medical issue.
The Mayo Clinic also publishes a number of excellent books and DVDs which are available from the Mayo Clinic book store. I especially commend Fitness for everybody.
However, let’s take a reality check. Most of us rely on doctors – either our own GP or a specialist to whom we have been referred by our GP – for health advice. We do not generally take advice on health from a website no matter how excellent its content.
How good is the advice we get from our doctors?
In the twenty-first century biology is the most rapidly advancing of all the sciences. Many of these advances have implications for medical practice. Doctors have to work hard to keep abreast of advances in medicine. If our doctors fail to master new knowledge their advice becomes devalued.
Do they? Do doctors keep themselves current? And, if they do, how?
It is not realistic to expect a busy practitioner to keep up with all the developments in medicine on her own. Doctors, and this applies especially to GPs, rely on their professional associations to help keep abreast of the latest developments.
And herein lies the problem. Allowing the pharmaceutical industry to play a major role in the ongoing education of doctors inevitably distorts the message doctors get when they attend conferences or read up on the latest news releases. Doctors get to hear more about the latest wonder drug and less about best practice for preventing illness in the first place.
To understand how all-pervasive is the role of the pharmaceutical industry in ongoing medical education consider these quotes made by Dr. Jon Jureidini of “Healthy Skepticism” on a recent Health Report broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio National station:
“Well the extent [of pharmaceutical company involvement in doctor education] is enormous; I mean there’s hardly any medical education that doesn’t have at least a presence of the pharmaceutical industry in it….”
“…it [pharmaceutical company involvement] works on many levels, I mean first the companies actually just give money to support the funding of the conference and supposedly once they’ve given that money it’s up to the conference organisers how they spend it. They also pay a lot of money to have exhibition space at conferences. A lot of the registrants at a conference are drug company staff so the ones who come to man exhibition booths have to pay registration. There’s a unknown amount of doctors who have their registration paid by the pharmaceutical industry. There are symposia run at conferences which are not actually part of the core scientific program but are advertised in the program and are given space and time to operate.”
Has your doctor told you about this wonder drug?
Let me further illustrate the point by quoting from a Mayo Clinic publication. This particular publication describes a wonder drug that will:
“…help prevent illness and disease – including cancer. It will help you lose excess weight and keep it off. It will slow the aging process making you look and feel younger than your years. It will give you energy and increase your self-esteem. It will reduce stress, fight depression and anxiety, and put you in a better mood. It will make you stronger and healthier. It will improve your posture, your flexibility, your balance and your endurance. It will help you sleep better.”
According to the authors of the Mayo Clinic publication this drug:
“…doesn’t cost a penny and …you can take it several times a day or just once a day and still see results. In fact you’ll start seeing results within two weeks of your first dose.”
This drug really exists. Has your doctor told you about it? If not, why not?
I suggest it is because most doctors are simply not trained to think that way and that part of the reason is that the pharmaceutical industry has been allowed to exercise undue influence on the way doctors are educated.
If you want to know more about the wonder drug the Mayo Clinic is punting keep following developments on this website or contact the Mayo Clinic.
Tags: aase, doctor education, lee, mayo clinic, pharmaceutical
Thanks for the nice words about Mayo Clinic. We think it’s important to make as much good information as we can available on the Web both for MDs and for patients, because often this can lead to better physician-patient conversations.
You’re right that people aren’t going to make their medical decisions based on a Web site. They shouldn’t. But hopefully the Web (and particularly through trustworthy sources) will make more information available for patients to inform themselves so they can participate intelligently in their health care decisions.
Thanks a lot!
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