Medical Norms Not So Normal

By Timmy Watson in News on Nov 19, 2006 7:00PM

At a medical conference in Chicago on Tuesday a team of researchers presented a study indicating the use of metal stents and tiny balloons in people who recently had a heart attack may actually do more damage than good. The researchers are part of on overall experiment, which challenges many best practices doctor's have been widely used on patients.

The root of the problem is that once a drug or medical device is approved by the F.D.A. doctor's are free to use them at their discretion. Over time, certain practices and medicines are routine for patients symptoms. According to the New York Times article, "At least one in five drug prescriptions are for unapproved uses, studies show, with some popular medicines getting more than 90 percent of their use as treatments for which they were never approved."

It seems as medical information become increasingly available online, patients and doctor's both fall into a comfort zone of prescriptions and methods with which to treat illness. This makes it nearly impossible to find a control group to test these drugs, devices, and surgeries. We completely understand this line of thinking, if we had heart trouble and we were asked to hold off on surgery to test if the method worked we would easily say hell no. This is why the F.D.A. should have performed these things before they become best practice. You know, the scientific method, right?

We don't discount the valuable use of current procedures, but as researchers provide more scientific proof on whether these current prescriptions work we imagine patients will be more secure in new methods.

Image via hillarykrutzsch