This is a fascinating book and should be required reading for students in every school!!
The majority of people have no clue that medical research came about because people were dying by the thousands and we still had no clue!!. These stories are a great way to teach people the importance of research and science. I wish Netflix would pick it up and make a documentary.
Thank you for inviting her. I would suggest inviting Gordon Guyatt—the person who has contributed the most to the development of EBM and is still contributing. There is a lot of misinformation about EBM that he can clear up!
Eric, thanks so much for this interview with Dr. Pearson about her book! I'm amazed that with all my years of fascination (as a patient advocate) with evidence-based medicine, and fairly deep awareness of unwarranted practice variation via pioneers like Jack Wennberg and team at Dartmouth, I was unaware of Iaian Chalmers and this great history. (My later education in the field was added by the advocate Casey Quinlan, who got deeply involved with the Cochrane Collaboration.)
As a public speaker at medical conferences (re patient empowerment) in the 2010s I can attest to how frankly obnoxious some physicians were in aggressively defending their unscientific opinions - a kick in their ego-testes indeed. One said to my face, "This is crap! You haven't been to medical school" despite having his facts wrong. Another said "I want the autonomy to practice as I see fit" and re evidence said "I don't have to practice out of some COOKBOOK."
Now mind you, all I have is routine scientific education, but that's enough to know that their REASONING is garbage. And I'll tell you, from out here in the counties, such arrogant *and wrong* physicians are a key driver of the rejection of science we see today.
(I even saw Marty Makary himself start a speech by telling of a doc who told him (when he was a resident) that he was not interested in a new approach to a procedure, because "I like to do these THIS way.")
Yes, such evidence-denying docs are a big part of the rise of MAHA among relatively reasonable citizens.
It pains me that scientific arrogance and defensiveness seem to be a major cause of distrust in science today. Yet in discussions of the problem those factors are never spotlighted; they're just recited mid-list in some litany.
I remember a doc 15 years ago who assailed Bob Wachter over maintenance of certification, saying, "Damn it, I was licensed to practice 38 years ago. How dare you suggest I don't know what I'm doing?" That doc is sadly, badly out of touch with reality and should NOT be practicing, with his ego-testes in the driver's seat.
Is it feasible that medicine might start disciplining (even de-licensing) people who refuse to hew to standards of competence?
This is a fascinating book and should be required reading for students in every school!!
The majority of people have no clue that medical research came about because people were dying by the thousands and we still had no clue!!. These stories are a great way to teach people the importance of research and science. I wish Netflix would pick it up and make a documentary.
Thank you for inviting her. I would suggest inviting Gordon Guyatt—the person who has contributed the most to the development of EBM and is still contributing. There is a lot of misinformation about EBM that he can clear up!
Eric, thanks so much for this interview with Dr. Pearson about her book! I'm amazed that with all my years of fascination (as a patient advocate) with evidence-based medicine, and fairly deep awareness of unwarranted practice variation via pioneers like Jack Wennberg and team at Dartmouth, I was unaware of Iaian Chalmers and this great history. (My later education in the field was added by the advocate Casey Quinlan, who got deeply involved with the Cochrane Collaboration.)
As a public speaker at medical conferences (re patient empowerment) in the 2010s I can attest to how frankly obnoxious some physicians were in aggressively defending their unscientific opinions - a kick in their ego-testes indeed. One said to my face, "This is crap! You haven't been to medical school" despite having his facts wrong. Another said "I want the autonomy to practice as I see fit" and re evidence said "I don't have to practice out of some COOKBOOK."
Now mind you, all I have is routine scientific education, but that's enough to know that their REASONING is garbage. And I'll tell you, from out here in the counties, such arrogant *and wrong* physicians are a key driver of the rejection of science we see today.
(I even saw Marty Makary himself start a speech by telling of a doc who told him (when he was a resident) that he was not interested in a new approach to a procedure, because "I like to do these THIS way.")
Yes, such evidence-denying docs are a big part of the rise of MAHA among relatively reasonable citizens.
It pains me that scientific arrogance and defensiveness seem to be a major cause of distrust in science today. Yet in discussions of the problem those factors are never spotlighted; they're just recited mid-list in some litany.
I remember a doc 15 years ago who assailed Bob Wachter over maintenance of certification, saying, "Damn it, I was licensed to practice 38 years ago. How dare you suggest I don't know what I'm doing?" That doc is sadly, badly out of touch with reality and should NOT be practicing, with his ego-testes in the driver's seat.
Is it feasible that medicine might start disciplining (even de-licensing) people who refuse to hew to standards of competence?