Dr. R. tells his long time patient Mr. K that he now needs a liver transplant. Mr.K has anticipated the need and had read in the news about the poor transplant outcomes from a particular hospital. When Dr. R., who is affiliated with that hospital, suggests that Mr. K. sign up for a transplant there, Mr. K. rejects the suggestion and explains what he has read. Dr. R. can explain that the news doesn’t tell the whole story, the sicker population the hospital has received skews the statistics and that the hospital is the proper place to have his surgery. But Mr. K. may still not understand or agree. Here the media has possibly placed a wall between a previously successful doctor-patient relationship.
I provided the comment article about this scenario in the current March 2007 issue of the American Medical Association’s Virtual Mentor. The topic for the entire publication this month is “Media Influence on the Practice of Medicine.” There are many ways in which the media can influence medical practice either for the good or for the bad. There are a variety of articles on this very topic at Virtual Mentor and I encourage my visitors to go there and learn and maybe return back and comment here about the topic. ..Maurice.
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