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July 12, 2005
I'm not a doctor, but....
So I had my first two experiences with not being a doctor but getting medical questions. First, at about 10 am this morning, my daughter applied a suction cup to the TV and my wife told her to take it off. My three-and-a-half year old pulled on the suction cup and pulled the 100 lb, 23" TV onto her foot after it's center of gravity fell about two feet (TVs are front heavy and it tipped forward as it fell). I was out of the office but got home by 1030 and she was whimpering on the couch. Pressure didn't hurt, mobilizing it didn't hurt. No apparent bruising or swelling. "Does this hurt?" "No, da TV hurt, I sorry... (tears and whimpering)." "You want a ring pop?" "Uh huh, you carry me?" "Hmmm... let's trying walking to the kitchen." As I said that I picked her up and set her gently to the ground. As I slowly loaded her weight onto her feet she still wanted me to carry her but she also took her weight from me and pivoted on the injured foot, without pain. Good enough for me. I told my wife if it started to swell or anything weird happened to call me, and I went back to work.
At work someone asked me about a relative who'd displayed mental changes and is on a bunch of medications. I had no idea what any of them were, but I looked up the prescribing information, applied what I learned from Professor Pontzer in Drug Action and Design, and offered him a little write-up on e-mail of my thoughts, with repeated statements that I'm not a doctor, I could be way off base, and he should talk to relative's doctor, but take the prescribing information to the doctor.
Having interviewed with some of the pharma companies before getting into Tulane I'm pretty much convinced their young, motivated sales reps are brainwashed by headquarters to buy into some morally corrupt ideas about education (sales pitches) without any obligation to make all the relevant facts known to their students (your doctors), indeed, an obligation to withhold disparaging information (that might affect their commision) is strongly advocated (enforced).
So what's the difference between the two situations? In the first, I'm the dad. Every dad has to make these analyses: do I take the kid to the emergency room or not. The answer isn't always yes. Would blue-collar dad have come to the same conclusion? Probably. In the second situation, there probably hasn't been much trained gray matter and time applied to that particular set of drug interactions. Somebody, somewhere, may have nuked it out, but it sure hasn't made into the literature (I checked PubMed). Whether I'm right or wrong, I'm pretty sure all involved will benefit from the doctor receiving the prescribing information and a few key questions from the person who sought me out. Medical advise? Or informed internet research? Where's the cut-off between water-cooler chit-chat at the office and medical advice?
Posted by Niels Olson at July 12, 2005 10:21 PM
Comments
"Having interviewed with some of the pharma companies before getting into Tulane I'm pretty much convinced their young, motivated sales reps are brainwashed by headquarters to buy into some morally corrupt ideas about education (sales pitches) without any obligation to make all the relevant facts known to their students (your doctors), indeed, an obligation to withhold disparaging information (that might affect their commision) is strongly advocated (enforced)."
Please share these thought with your (future) colleagues, and anyone else you come across. But also consider that drug reps are decidedly not teachers. They are walking talking advertisments and should be greeted with as much skepticism as that warrants, never mind how good the free barbeque was.
Posted by: ThomasD at July 19, 2005 7:42 PM