Fuso pharyngitis – what we know, what we don’t know

As most readers know, I have studied pharyngitis for over 30 years. Over the past 5 years I have had an epiphany.

The danger of assumptions in medicine

When caring for patients, we must always question our own assumptions and the assumptions of other physicians.

We can improve the teaching and practice of diagnosis. We have a growing number of physicians dedicated to this task.

The takeaway is the essential value of human experience — we can never have too many Capt. Sullenbergers, in aviation or medicine.

I can’t teach anyone directly; I can only encourage them to think critically for themselves.

And as much as I love James Lee Burke, when you listen to his books you have the treat of Will Patton, who adds greatly to the prose.

Accepting a diagnosis without some thought allows us to make errors. If you are not already a diagnostic skeptic, please become one.

Physicians must subjectively balance treatment risks and benefits, making consensus difficult, as human judgment varies in medical decisions.

Many physicians avoid PSA screening for prostate cancer due to its mediocre accuracy and harmful treatment side effects, despite debate.

To recap an earlier post, physicians probably use two types of reasoning – intuitive (or automatic or simple) and analytic (or complex).