Actually, google searches can sometimes best your medical degree.
You’ve probably read this line sometime in the past couple of years in a meme or in a post ranting about the inferiority of good old-fashioned regular folk over medical professionals when it comes to examining health.
Let’s look a little closer at this.
In my opinion, this is implying that if you are not a trained medical professional, then you have no right to question your healthcare practitioner or offer alternative opinions. This is especially potent in todays medical climate.
Is this a valid notion to perpetuate?
…or possibly dangerous?
Behold, I bring you a 2019 meta-analysis here from the British Medical Journal (BMJ) whose objective was to:
- Systematically quantify the prevalence, severity, and nature of preventable patient harm across a range of medical settings globally.
So they were looking at how much unintentional harm is done in the medical system and here are the findings.
“1 in 20 patients are exposed to preventable harm in the medical system”.
Let that sink in.
5% of individuals are exposed to unintentional harm in the medical system. That number would be in the hundreds of thousands per country.
HOLD UP! I want to clarify that this is not an attack on medical personnel.
Healthcare practitioners by and large truly want the best for their patients and most offer their best efforts to make this happen. This study is reflective of broken medical systems and the inescapable fact that humans are prone to error.
My father was one of the 5% in Canada. His blood glucose level were below the normal range for 2 years and his doctor's office never mentioned it to him. My Dad only became enlightened of this when my mom found him passed out one glorious morning and the paramedics had to revive him with dextrose (medical sugar).
After a little digging, we found out he had been having low blood sugar for years and he ended up being diagnosed with an insulinoma (insulin-producing tumour which lowers blood sugar levels).
Let me reassure you that public medical systems are not perfect.
I want to circle back to the original point about questioning medical authorities. If your rap sheet has a 5% harm rate, is it not reasonable to postulate that patients should be able to educate themselves about their own health, request lab information for themselves and be free to bring up genuine questions when seeing their practitioners?
I personally don’t see it as unreasonable.
I see it as essential for those who are ambitious for longevity.
OVERALL: I highly encourage people to educate themselves about their health so that they can have informed and respectful conversations with their medical practitioners.
Please don’t sit in silence if something doesn’t sit well with you.
Self-advocate or if need be, find someone who will listen.
You got this.
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