EBM vs. popular opinion

[Downbytheicu]

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Has everyone heard the hulabaloo about changing the guidelines for breast cancer screening? People are going crazy about it. I am sure that there is a financial element in here--some attempt to cut costs, just like the White House said that EBM would. Except that people are angry. So, the White House is distancing itself from the guidelines put forth by the USPTSF, a panel that is part of the US Dept. of Health and Human Services, because they disagree with it.

My question is, what is the point of having evidence-based guidelines if popular opinion is going to dictate which ones we use and which ones we reject? I don't even care, for the purposes of this discussion, whether the guidelines are correct or 'best practice'. So don't get into arguments over whether the guidelines are correct or not. The question is, right or wrong, why is there a push to embrace "objective evidenced-based guidelines" if subjective public opinion will brush it aside? Don't we already have panels that make recommendations and then physicians look at it, make their own opinions about it, and let market forces (public opinion) influence their practice? Isn't that we already do?

 

[Pharmavixen]

Already being discussed here.

 

[RGMSU]

Don't we already have panels that make recommendations and then physicians look at it, make their own opinions about it, and let market forces (public opinion) influence their practice? Isn't that we already do?

Yes, and this is what we should continue to do. Every patient doesn't fit in the box. That's why we go to medical school - to make educated medical decisions. We don't need to have those decisions made for us by the government or an insurance company.