It’s sort of built into the profession: medical practice is inherently little-c conservative. Doctors are trained throughly to practice the precautionary principle because it’s easier to cause more harm. Often with good reason imagine you’re a surgeon and a new procedure comes out that’s 92% effective and the one you learned in school and have hundreds of hours of practice in is 89% effective. That boost is worth it in theory but are you going to risk a few patients while you learn it along the way? That benefit needs to be much larger in the aggregate. This is also assuming it’s something reach FDA certification, etc. scientific research is often a decade ahead of the market any way in any field.
Then there’s also the reality that doctors at least in the US are incredibly over worked and keeping up with a wide variety of scientific literature is just not practical. This is coupled to an increased specialization in medicine may mean cross-over research from different specialities may not filter into your desk.
> It’s sort of built into the profession: medical practice is inherently little-c conservative. Doctors are trained throughly to practice the precautionary principle because it’s easier to cause more harm. Often with good reason imagine you’re a surgeon and a new procedure comes out that’s 92% effective
I wish they remembered that for COVID vaccines, because apparently it's the exception.
I feel like medicine teaches you the facts - the hip bone is connected to the, leg bone - but in terms of 'troubleshooting skills', there is something deeply missing.
> It seems like it favours memorizing things and certain patterns.
I think this is broadly true. Probably not for all of medicine but generally speaking it is.
I recently started having a relapse of debilitating cluster headaches for a couple of weeks for the first time in about a half a decade (maybe longer). I tried avoiding all the typical triggers: Caffeine, chocolate, dust, smoke (difficult in winter when the neighbors love their fires), etc. Nothing worked.
Then I remembered: Ah hah! Sinus infections. I'd forgotten that the underlying trigger for me almost 90% of the time is a sinus infection I didn't notice that got out of hand. About halfway through a course of antibiotics the headaches have largely subsided.
Problem is that my sinus infections never seem to manifest typically, probably due to anatomical abnormalities. This typically means that a week or longer of back-and-forth "we don't see anything wrong" with the doctor worsens the problem until the pressure and pain builds up to a point that touching anywhere near the sinuses is very unpleasant. The best preventative measure I have, and probably the reason I avoided them for so long, is to do regular sinus irrigation. I lapsed about 6 months ago and stopped doing it--whoops.
Most practitioners are fine if you fit the majority of cases and the literature. If you deviate outside that, it's much more difficult to diagnose for the reasons you highlighted regarding complex systems. Humans just suck at it.
I don't have much advice other than to learn and know your own body. You probably know it better than any doctor. But you also need to become your own advocate if you think something isn't quite right and you need some help!
