Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site l5.uucp Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!sun!l5!laura From: laura@l5.uucp (Laura Creighton) Newsgroups: net.politics.theory Subject: Re: Credentials, State vs. private Message-ID: <139@l5.uucp> Date: Sat, 21-Sep-85 14:59:11 EDT Article-I.D.: l5.139 Posted: Sat Sep 21 14:59:11 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 08:20:02 EDT References: <152@gargoyle.UUCP> <28200053@inmet.UUCP> Reply-To: laura@l5.UUCP (Laura Creighton) Organization: Ell-Five [Consultants], San Francisco Lines: 29 In article <1237@ihlpg.UUCP> tan@ihlpg.UUCP (Bill Tanenbaum) writes: >OK, I can research my personal physician's credentials. What happens, however, >when I need emergency medical care, or if I get sick when away from home. >I want to know that all practicing doctors, not just mine, have met some >minimal competency standards. State liscensing is not perfect in this >regard, but it is better than nothing. >-- The question is, what makes it better than the Rich Rosen certification of only objective and materialist physicians? Or the Stanford Medical School certificate of graduation? Or the Consumer's Report on Physicians in the State of (say) California? Right now I have no way of knowing whether any given doctor graduated first or last in his class, or whether he is a brilliant theoretician who can do splendid medical research but who has difficulty in coming up with an accurate diagnosis. The tendancy to rely on state certification leads to apathy on the part of the public. The number of people, who, when faced with a serious medical decision (say to either have a mastectomy or to have chemotherapy instead) do not get a second, thrid and forth opinion is astonishing. Clearly they believe that either the first opinion they got was the only one (based on a belief that all doctors are minimally competant and couldn't be wrong on such an issue) or that their first doctor was in some way better than other doctors. This is frightening. -- Laura Creighton (note new address!) sun!l5!laura (that is ell-five, not fifteen) l5!laura@lll-crg.arpa