Lost with a Medical Compass
The British Journal of Hospital Medicine1 recently published, "Failure of many new heart-failure drugs: the need for vasoconstrictor rather than vasodilator agents?" The author examines the theories behind the use of these drugs and questions the use of various drugs for heart failure. He concludes with this comment which could apply to many of medicine's theories:
"There is obvious reluctance to throw away the haemodynamic 'compass' because although this may have led us in the wrong direction, at least when we believed in it, we thought we knew where we were going!"Reference
1. Cleland JGF. Failure of many new heart-failure drugs: the need for vasoconstrictor rather than vasodilator agents? Br J Hosp Med 1994;52:193-6.
Many relevant diagnostic signs are not performed deliberately by the examiner or by the patient at the examiner’s direction. They are observed as the patient reacts to their condition. Fortin’s finger sign, Minor’s sign, and Vanzetti’s sign are three examples of this principle.
On Feb. 1, 2024, two more legislators – John R. Carter (R-Texas) and Robert “Bob” Good (R-Va.) – co-sponsored the Chiropractic Medicare Coverage Modernization Act of 2023, bringing the co-sponsor total to 155, two more than the total achieved over the entire two-year congressional cycle in which identical legislation last appeared (2021-22).
While working at the Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, N.M., one of the primary care physicians stated that imaging every patient prior to receiving chiropractic was not medically necessary. It was at that point I reconsidered the need for the imaging of every patient to avoid malpractice.
