Would you rather that your doctor have excellent medical knowledge or medical judgment? Answer this question before reading on. Patients are drawn to doctors and medical facilities who boast ‘cutting edge’ medical knowledge and techniques. Medical judgement, which is much more important in my view, is barely mentioned. Good doctors have great knowledge, but great doctors have superb judgment. Consider the following vignette that I hope illustrates why judgement means more than knowledge. A patient is comes to the emergency room with abdominal pain. The physician refers him to two different physicians, Dr. Knowledge and Dr. Judgment. Which of these physicians would you rather see? Is the gallbladder the culprit here? Dr. Knowledge: I recommend that your gallbladder be removed. I have trained in advanced robotic surgery which leaves only one very small scar. My complication rate is extremely low. Our operating room team is excellent. I am the only surgeon
MD Whistleblower presents vignettes and commentaries on the medical profession. We peek 'behind the medical curtain' and deliver candor and controversy in every post.