Comment by its_so_on | Hacker News Reader

Comment by its_so_on | Hacker News Reader

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Why don't you just tell them that you're pretty well-versed? Doctors are pretty smart. I wouldn't presume to say this is always appropriate, but depending on the rapport they might listen attentively to what you know from your own research (though they would probably check before acting on it.)

Doctors know very well that a person with a specific rare disease has a lot more incentive to have spent in-depth research on it than they did when they last ran across it...

I mean, these days there are whole forums dedicatd to a specific disease. If you told the doctor, "You know, I ran across a forum for people like me, a lot of people have said they had very bad results with (x) despite the clinical trials, so I would prefer (y)"...you don't think they would listen to you?

Where is this attitude coming from?

You're making a lot of assumptions that aren't true. I regularly instruct doctors on my condition in detail, they do usually listen and are reasonable. However, I am often disappointed by the lack of depth of the research they do in advance of meeting (and billing me exorbitantly).

Recently, my sister (same condition) drove a couple hours to see a specialist who had obviously not read her file or done any research and made some truly awful suggestions (one that could certainly have lead to her death if she had followed it). He billed her for the time.

Doctors are like coders, some are orders of magnitude better than others. Some are so bad, they have a net negative impact on your health.

You speak like someone who probably hasn't spent a good chunk of their life as a patient. You are correct; the best doctors know the limit of their own knowledge and will respect a knowledgeable patient. I respect my top notch specialists more than anyone on the planet. But those are the best doctors. There are many more average and outright bad doctors, just like any other skilled profession. Some that can't keep their ego in check, some that just aren't very good at deconstructing a complex problem.

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