"Don't muzzle our doctor's" (Toronto Star)

[Wayward son]

I found this article in the Toronto Star on Sunday interesting, so I thought I would make a thread and see if anyone has any comments.

 

Exerpts:

 

Ontario’s College of Physicians and Surgeons is bending to the trend with a new policy inhibiting doctors’ criticism of unconventional therapies. In doing so it risks encouraging even broader use of dubious and potentially harmful treatments.

 

Make no mistake — blind trust in alternative cures can be dangerous. An unknown number of Canadians are opting out of science-based medicine to treat even deadly conditions, like cancer, with unproven “natural” approaches.

 

There’s no denying alternative medicine is immensely popular. Patients are more independent than ever before, often researching their illness and trusting their own solutions. And a host of unconventional “natural” healers has risen capitalizing on that trust — offering unproven therapies with little validity and which, in some cases, are a menace.

 

The college shouldn’t seek to accommodate that trend or retreat to a neutral corner. Rather it should leave doctors free to punch hard against those peddling dubious cures and to challenge people’s comforting, but irrational, beliefs. Science-based medicine serves patients best. If doctors can’t vigorously defend it, who will?

[seeking1]

If I've said it once, I'll say it again: we need another Flexner Report.

[apache]

haha, i wont go into it but i know about this more than anyone on this site, i'm a utilitarian by philosophy and that means use what works, whether it's naturopathic, allopathic, acupuncture, who cares. just a warning, challenge the traditional zeitgeist (even if only aspects of it) and you'll be systemically targeted. i've talked with a large group of doctors who've gone through the same thing and this is a common practice, all over canada, adopt our profitable ideology, don't make criticisms which may serve patient interests over physicians, and we'll leave you alone. no one has any idea of the degree of corruption which occurs, of course, i won't elucidate because those doctors have licenses to lose.

 

I found this article in the Toronto Star on Sunday interesting, so I thought I would make a thread and see if anyone has any comments.

 

Exerpts:

 

Ontario’s College of Physicians and Surgeons is bending to the trend with a new policy inhibiting doctors’ criticism of unconventional therapies. In doing so it risks encouraging even broader use of dubious and potentially harmful treatments.

 

Make no mistake — blind trust in alternative cures can be dangerous. An unknown number of Canadians are opting out of science-based medicine to treat even deadly conditions, like cancer, with unproven “natural” approaches.

 

The college shouldn’t seek to accommodate that trend or retreat to a neutral corner. Rather it should leave doctors free to punch hard against those peddling dubious cures and to challenge people’s comforting, but irrational, beliefs. Science-based medicine serves patients best. If doctors can’t vigorously defend it, who will?