In this blog post, we consider whether we are blindly trusting medical technology, and whether the trust between patients and doctors can sometimes be dangerous.
It’s a convenient and safe world these days. If you’re sick, you can walk into your local doctor’s office and get a diagnosis and prescription in no time. You only have to walk down the street to realize that hospitals and pharmacies are everywhere. Medical technology has become so intertwined with our lives and has brought us so many benefits. In the past, many people lost their lives to diseases they didn’t even know the name of, but now, as we look towards the centenarian era, most diseases can be cured. Even cancer, which seemed unconquerable, has become somewhat curable. This is a truly remarkable development.
We trust the prescriptions of doctors to provide these amazing treatments. Of course, treatment requires a certain amount of trust between patient and doctor. But often, we don’t realize that trust turns into blind faith. This blind faith in medical technology doesn’t usually cause much trouble. But sometimes, when medical technology reaches its limits, patients and caregivers feel frustrated by the inability to cure the disease and betrayed by the helpless doctor. This often leads to conflict between the patient or guardian and the doctor, and can lead to court cases. We only have ourselves to blame for the emotional pain of discovering the truth about what we trusted.
First, let’s look at some examples of the limitations of medical technology. Perhaps the most common reason to visit a doctor is a cold. Normally, we can vaccinate ourselves against it, or once we get it, our immune system builds up and we don’t get it again. However, some people get colds every year, or even several times a year. There are many different types of colds, and they are fast-moving, mutating, viral diseases. So, every time there is a new strain, a new vaccine needs to be developed, but do we get a new drug every time we go to the doctor? No, we don’t. So what are those antibiotics we’re prescribed?
Usually, antibiotics only work against bacteria, not viruses. But the common cold is usually viral, not bacterial. Moreover, 80% of sore throats are viral and rarely require antibiotics, and prescribing antibiotics for bronchitis is also futile. It’s not right to prescribe antibiotics for every cold. Instead, we look at doctors who don’t prescribe medication as strange. The truth is that there is no cure for a sore throat, so the goal should be to relieve the symptoms, and it should get better in a week. However, patients often think that medication is the only way to cure the disease. They also believe that antibiotics are necessary to cure the disease, even if it’s not. This is despite the fact that antibiotics have nothing to do with it. This belief can lead to overuse of antibiotics, which can lead to side effects and the emergence of new resistant pathogens.
Next, let’s talk about CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and it’s the act of reviving someone whose heart and lungs have stopped working. It’s about bringing someone back from the dead. It’s usually used as a last resort to save someone who is really hopeless. In medical dramas and movies, CPR is often shown and the patient miraculously opens their eyes. In real life, many caregivers want to perform CPR because it increases the patient’s chances of survival. They want to save their loved ones. But how many people realize how scary this skill is and whether it can actually save someone’s life?
To perform CPR properly, you need to have bruises and broken ribs. Ringers are stuck all over the patient’s body, and drugs are administered to inflate the body. The doctor continues to compress the chest as if to break the ribs. What are the chances of the patient surviving this painful process? The failure rate is more than 90%. Even if the victim does survive, they have to endure a lot of pain, including lung or rib damage, and it’s even harder for the elderly and children.
So far, we’ve seen two examples. One is so common that it’s considered a minor illness, and the other is a life-or-death event. But no matter how seemingly insignificant or incredibly important a disease is, there is no perfect cure for it. Despite all the advances in medical technology, only smallpox has been eradicated from the world. Despite this, there are still many different diseases that we don’t have access to. By now, you should have realized that medical technology has its limits.
This is not to say that “don’t go to the doctor for a cold, stay home and drink hot tea,” or “don’t use CPR because it’s unlikely to save someone’s life,” especially since medical issues are often about human life, and there are ethical considerations that are not always 100% certain. The high probability of a viral cold doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prescribe antibiotics, but we should try to find ways to alleviate cold symptoms and be more cautious when prescribing. Patients shouldn’t expect to be prescribed antibiotics, but should consider whether they really need them. One of the main causes of antibiotic overuse is patient demand for prescriptions. This is something we can work to reduce. Similarly, CPR shouldn’t be learned or considered unnecessary just because a person has less than a 10% chance of survival. It is a necessary skill because it is the last resort in a life-threatening emergency, and we must save lives at all costs. However, it’s important to realize that CPR can’t save every life. It’s also important to keep in mind that the process can be quite painful for the patient. For this reason, some doctors refuse to attempt CPR, or even ask for consent not to perform CPR before surgery. Nevertheless, many doctors will perform CPR as a demonstration if asked by a caregiver. While caregivers want to perform CPR because they want to save the patient’s life, they shouldn’t be blindly trusting without knowing the reality of the situation.
Such simple trust is not enough to make objective judgments in real-life situations. We need something beyond trust. It needs to be a two-way street between patient and doctor.
First, patients need to have a certain level of medical knowledge. If medicine remains the exclusive domain of doctors, the one-sided trust between patients and doctors will not be broken, and there will still be a lack of awareness of the dangers of medical technology. One way to do this is to make better use of the health classes that are taught in elementary school. Currently, health classes in schools are often replaced by a video education program every few weeks or months, such as sex education or smoking cessation education. However, it is necessary to increase the frequency of health education and teach basic knowledge about medications such as CPR and antibiotics and fever reducers. In addition, safety education videos such as CPR and defibrillators have recently been broadcast on subway trains, and this kind of education that can be encountered frequently in real life is also effective. It would also be effective to provide medical education videos using various media such as bus stops and commercial breaks before movies.
Next, doctors should be required to treat according to their conscience. This may be difficult to implement as a policy, but it is an essential skill for individual doctors, and should be included as a mandatory part of their training. There is time for character education for predoctoral students during their first two years, but it is more of a liberal arts education than a true character education. There is a lack of training in medical ethics. In addition, the culture among doctors is also a problem, especially in large hospitals, where doctors are expected to care about socializing and hospital politics in addition to patient care. It is the doctors themselves who create such a climate. If you lack awareness of these issues, education can help. Medical ethics and other ethics should be reinforced during pre-professional training, and this should also be reinforced during the program.
Of course, education won’t solve all problems, but we can prevent patients from trusting out of ignorance, and doctors from making inhumane prescriptions out of a lack of humanity.
