Choice

You may consider my question yesterday a nuisance: We should explain to the patient and let him choose !

Anyone who has practiced medicine for some time would agree there are many patients who rely on the physician to make the judgement. Even for an intelligent and well educated patient, the decision depends very much on how we present the facts.

That's the tip of an iceberg. There are so many complicated medical decisions. If our medical students have difficulty to do critical appraisal of medical literature (which is thoroughly understandable), how on earth is it possible for a patient with ordinary intelligence to appreciate every pros and cons in details so that he could choose for himself (take aside the time needed to explain everything, and the eternal source of problem - relatives) ?

When I first studied medicine, I realized very soon that there was no need for me to know everything - I only need to know who is good at what area so that when there is such a problem, I can have that expert to take charge of it. Why should our patient have to know everything, without an expert to fall back on ?