Medicine Free Essays

Medicine is an important part of our lives, a fact true for those who experience serious health problems and those with relatively healthy backgrounds. In modern society, it accompanies us from the cradle to the grave, with all kinds of analyses, tests, vaccinations, preventive measures, and the like. The functioning of this huge and enormously complex and costly apparatus often makes individuals think that they are being handled by a well-oiled machine relying on rigorous scientific procedures. We will write a custom essay sample on Medicine or any similar topic only for you Order Now Yet the medical testing and evaluation procedures at this point still lack rigor, and patients are often trapped into wrong treatment by a doctor’s bad judgement. In general, there is less effectiveness and more mistakes in modern health care than one would expect, at least in developed nations with their high cost of services and health care often turned into a national priority. On my part, I first got a glimpse into the ineffectiveness and obscurity of modern medicine when my grandmother got cancer. It was not diagnosed till it was in the final stage, primarily because my Grandma was not the one to often see a doctor. However, when it became clear that she had it, and most physicians arrived at this conclusion based on how she felt, the greatest challenge proved to be the real diagnosis. Our problem was that nobody knew what type of cancer she had – obviously something in the stomach, but what exactly boggled the doctors. As a result, the 82-year-old woman with cancer in the final stage was forced to go from one medical examination to another, in a long string of visits to the hospital that consumed her last strength. The first tentative guess was that it was related to gynaecology, but the physician who tested her for this type of cancer found no pathology. As it turned out later, he made a gross mistake; however, it had not been discovered until she completed the full round of investigations that could find different varieties of cancer, and another gynaecologist assigned to see her immediately diagnosed her with ovary cancer. In this case, the fuzziness of procedures or blatant incompetence of a single doctor (we never found out what was the real cause) cost the old woman at least two weeks of continuous visits, instead of staying at home with her relatives to share with them the last moments of her long and fruitful life. When she got ill, my aunt and cousin moved to stay with us. Both being doctors, they often discussed their hypotheses about my grandmother’s illness, with their discussions impressing me with the vagueness and tentative approach to issues like the diagnosis. The whole process that had appeared to me as a coherent, authoritative investigation of the patient’s condition now looked as a haphazard analysis of disparate facts, driven more by intuition than by sound informed judgement. My reaction could have been aggravated by the fact that it was my relative who was being examined and I took a strong interest in her destiny, but in any case I began to take medical advice and evaluation with a grain of salt after that. While this story certainly presents the viewpoint of a layperson, tainted by emotional attitude, the same situation arouses concern of many qualified professionals. Dr. George D. Lundberg, the author of Severed Trust: Why American Medicine Hasn’t Been Fixed, also calls for toughening of medical standards in order to improve health care.   Lundberg calls for â€Å"national standards based on scientific knowledge and expertise† (McDonough, 2001). The establishment of such standards would permit improvements in the regulation of the sphere so vital for the well-being of doctors and patients. While Americans pay so much for medical care to the point where many poorer citizens cannot afford it, they do not always get the treatment they need and deserve. Dissatisfaction with the level of care provided is shared by many professionals who have seen flagrant cases of ignorance and sloppiness. Too often patients have to rely on judgements made on the basis of inadequate research and lack of information about the subject. Scheibner (2001) gives an example of the above describing how the exact causes of the Shaken Baby Syndrome appear doubtful; yet â€Å"a great number of parents and other carers are being accused of shaking their small babies and causing grievous bodily harm and death†. It is really frightful to think that people can be accused of causing harm to their children, a stigma that will stick to them for a lifetime while in reality they may be totally innocent. Dysfunctions that happen in children’s bodies are often an enigma to physicians who do not hesitate to put the blame on mothers and fathers, disregarding carers’ pleas that they have nothing to do with what happens to their children. Scheibner (2001) suggests that in fact such harm can be caused by â€Å"those who inject babies with great numbers of vaccines within short periods of time in the first months of life, often ignoring the observed serious reactions to the previous lots of vaccines†. Whatever is the case, it is clear that the causes of human illness for a great part remain obscure, and we are forced into guessing and never knowing what went wrong in this or that particular case. The worst part of this situation is that medical judgements can impact human lives, accusing carers of irresponsible behavior. The only hope is skilful physicians that are plenty around and the progress of science that will make the human body and internal processes less of a mystery. This paper does not attempt to vindicate professionals who selflessly devote their lives to caring for people in need and improving public health. Its only purpose is to attract attention to the still unsatisfactory state of affairs in medicine. Too often patients rely on the gut feeling of the doctor that can lead him or her to be blatantly wrong. In many cases, the process can be improved through thorough research and application of sound medical principles. Toughening medical standards can also be of help. With the general progress of science, it is to be hoped that medical care can also progress, allowing patients to receive more grounded diagnoses and prescriptions and minimising the risk of errors. Works Cited Hirsch, Joy. â€Å"Raising Consciousness.† Journal of Clinical Investigation 115 (2005):1102. McDonough, John E. â€Å"An Editor’s Diagnosis.† The American Prospect 12.7 (2001, April 23). Quality Interagency Coordination (QuIC) Task Force. Peer Review Protections. 7 July 2006 ;http://www.quic.gov/report/mederr6.htm;. Scheibner, Viera. â€Å"Shaken Baby Syndrome Diagnosis On Shaky Ground.† Journal of Australasian College of Nutritional ; Environmental Medicine 20.2 (August 2001): 5-8. Simon, Robert I. â€Å"Commentary: Medical Errors, Sentinel Events, and Malpractice.† Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 34.1(2006): 99-100. ; How to cite Medicine, Essay examples