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medpundit |
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Friday, March 07, 2003So presenting a project is an exercise in what to leave out. You want to give an accurate impression of things (well, most people do; there are exceptions.) After all, if the whole thing does go down in flames in another couple of months, you don't want bewildered managers ringing your phone because they thought everything was fine. But you also don't want to drag in every possible complication, because that'll make it look like resources should be pulled away now before any more time gets wasted. The same holds with medical practice. Every time we prescribe a drug, we have to toe a fine line when discussing the side effects. Just about anything could happen, but detailing every single possibility, no matter how remote, makes people leery. Far better to dwell on the most probable. Sometimes this approach is sabotaged by the pharmacy, especially the large chain stores such as CVS, which provide a computer list of every possible side effect under the sun. It might help protect them from liability, but it doesn’t do much for patient compliance. And the same holds for the art of diagnosis. Sometimes, there’s a long list of differentials to consider when you’re trying to diagnose a complaint, but it’s not always in the best interest of the patient to share all of those possibilities. Lymphoma may be way down the list in terms of probability for a new lump in the neck, but you can bet that if you mention it, along with the more likely reactive lymph node, there’s a good chance that lymphoma is going to be the only thing the patient hears. Information has to be given out judiciously to be effective. posted by Sydney on 3/07/2003 07:24:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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