Knowledge is power. Increasingly, patients are demanding and receiving access to levers in the medical machine that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. I have already opined on this blog whether the informed consent process, which I support, can overwhelm ordinary patients and families with conflicting and bewildering options. Television and the airwaves routinely advertise prescription drugs directly to the public. Consider the strategy of direct-to-consumer drug marketing when millions of dollars are spent advertising a drug that viewers are not permitted to purchase themselves. The public can now with a few clicks on a laptop, research individual physicians and hospitals to compare them to competitors. The ‘Sunshine Act’, an Obamacare feature, publicizes payments to physicians and hospitals by pharmaceutical companies and other manufacturers. "Sunlight is said to be the best disinfectant" Every physician today has the experience of patients comi
MD Whistleblower presents vignettes and commentaries on the medical profession. We peek 'behind the medical curtain' and deliver candor and controversy in every post.