On May 29, 7:02 am, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
Tina wrote in news:f15aa3b8-e230-42fc-b180-
:



It was said at a Med School graduation not that long ago that the
dean's closing remarks included something like "half of what we taught
you is wrong, but we don't know which half."

I think he was probably being a little optomistic, depending...



That may be the wrong fraction these days, but the idea is still
correct. We do evidence based medicine and results based modalities
these days. One size does not fit all. Even the best of the
psychotropic drugs have about a 30% chance of having the desired
results -- that's why one monitors the effects of these meds, makes
changes and tries others if he or she can.

It's a lot less certain than flying from here to there. One the other
hand, life expectancy in the last century improved on average a month
a year - 100 months longer now than a hundred years ago, so there has
been some improvement if one accepts life expectancy as a reasonable
metric. I think quality of life expectancy has gained even more, but
have no evidence to support that claim.

Well, I've had protracted stays in countries where the life expectancy
is still very low inddedd (I heard 39 quoted, but if anything it's lower
now) So you're probably right, I was only talking about the shrink
aspect in any case..

The evidence is we are by most measures one of the poorer performing
segments of the health care industry. Some of us spend our
professional time working on developing improved standards of care.
It's a field needing lots of work, since for example depression seems
to be as common as the common cold . The good news for us is, there
are lots of people needing help. The bad news is, many don't recognize
their need for help -- including some members of this news group. For
some here, and elsewhere, I still think blunt force lobotomies -- 5
pound hammers come to mind -- might be appropriate. I should have
said, of course, a 5 pound hammer coming to their so called mind.

Gotta go. My next victim , ah, that is, patient, is waiting. When the
only tool you have is a hammer. everything looks like a nail.