It would be nice to know wouldn’t it? Whenever I go to see a new doctor I do as much of a background check as I can.
I check to see what their education was and what they’re certified in. I don’t pay much attention to malpractice suits, because any doctor with more than 10 patients has had a malpractice suit. We are a litigious society.
One of the things I look for is a doctor who has practiced in another country. In the US it’s not just our access to medical care that is lacking; it’s the actual medical care itself.
Particularly when it comes to cancer, many other countries have better standards of care.
I want my doctor to be familiar with those higher standards.
If I’m having surgery, I also check out the anesthesiologist. I like for my doctors to be Democrats as well, I want them to share my values. That I usually learn in the first visit just from talking to them.
For my cancer surgeries, I checked out the surgeon by googling him. I could tell he worked in other countries and I read some of the papers he had written. He seemed big into making surgery as non invasive as possible and in his early papers argued against radical mastectomies. That was good enough for me.
My oncologist’s mom is the best friend of one of my good friends. Good enough for me.
As Leana Wen talks about in her Ted Talk, that’s the way it used to be. You knew your doctor outside of the office.
It’s a bit harder to find out exactly who your doctor is getting paid by. That’s why Leana Wen started her “Who’s My Doctor?” initiative; to help provide transparency. Well, she was young and thought other doctors would be excited to disclose any financial conflicts of interest and share their values.
I don’t think that she expected people to try to get her fired and to send her death threats.
That’s where we could come in as patients I believe. We can set high standards for our doctors and choose only those who disclose the truth and meet those standards.
It’s important to me to know if my doctor is prescribing a certain drug or treatment protocol because it’s the best one for me individually or because they will get the highest kickback.
As cancer patients it seems especially egregious that we have to do our own research on this. Trying to find out all the needed information with “cancer, cancer” whispering in the background. I hope Leana Wen’s initiative expands to huge numbers so that parents can stop having to do the research themselves.
http://www.drleanawen.com/...
Others sources to search for info about your doctor:
http://www.consumerreports.org/...
http://www.certificationmatters.org/...
http://www.ehow.com/...
http://patients.about.com/...
The Monday Night Cancer Club
Monday Night Cancer Club is a Daily Kos group focused on dealing with cancer, primarily for cancer survivors and caregivers, though clinicians, researchers, and others with a special interest are also welcome. Volunteer diarists post Monday evenings between 7-8 PM ET on topics related to living with cancer, which is very broadly defined to include physical, spiritual, emotional and cognitive aspects. Mindful of the controversies endemic to cancer prevention and treatment, we ask that both diarists and commenters keep an open mind regarding strategies for surviving cancer, whether based in traditional, Eastern, Western, allopathic or other medical practices. This is a club no one wants to join, in truth, and compassion will help us make it through the challenge together.