The Doctor’s Corner!
“Scientific Literacy”
Welcome
to
The
Doctor’s Corner!
This is a new page to our website where we hope to update our patients
on developments in pediatrics and provide our parents with useful
information. As we update this page, you will note links to the
right where we will archive articles for you to directly link to.
As our
first installment to
The
Doctor’s Corner, I
thought it would be appropriate to begin with a subject that professor
Daniel Berger1
refers to as “scientific literacy”. As many of us know, most of
what we call science is based on what we all learned in school as the
scientific method. Scientific method reminds us of
observation, hypothesis, and experimentation to prove or disprove our
hypothesis—the more reproducible the results are, the more reliable the
“science” is. In fact, much of what medicine is based on (patient
history, clinical presentations, diagnosis and treatment) is based on
this scientific method. The world of medicine is filled with many
studies that have looked at how we collect information on patients
(through history, physical exams, laboratory data, etc.) and how we, as
physicians, process that information to come up with a diagnosis and
treatment plan. While much of the process of data collection in
terms of history and physical exam has not changed throughout the years,
the advent of newer laboratory testing methods has changed the way in
which we diagnose illness and newer technologies, vaccines and
medications have changed the way we treat or manage our patients.
However, these changes do not come about overnight and, somewhere along
the line from idea or hypothesis to what is accepted as recommended
therapy or prevention, they have usually gone through the scientific
method.
You may
be asking why the preamble about scientific method? Well, in
recent years, the information highway has become one huge freeway in
which information is available at light speed. This has become
increasingly more evident in medicine. We are bombarded with
medical information on the internet about some new study it seems like
every minute. The media and the availability of hundreds of
channels from your local cable or satellite television provider has
magnified the situation, not to mention all the pharmaceutical
commercials in-between the medical reports informing us of some recent
study showing how this medication can cure your cholesterol problem, or
that medication can improve your love life, or some new vitamins that
can make you lose weight overnight, reverse the balding process, make
you taller, make you smarter, or make you hit the lottery! (I added the
last three for comic effect, however, I wouldn’t be surprised if those
were the claims to come out next!). Nowhere can these “recent
medical reports” or “new studies” have the most damaging effect than in
the field of pediatrics. As a pediatrician (and I am sure I speak
for most physicians, not just pediatricians) our first patient priority
is “do no harm”. So, what happens when the time-tested and proven
preventative medicine or treatment plan comes under attack by some new
study? What is even worse is what do we do when that new study
postulates a causal relationship between the proven treatment plan and
an adverse outcome. Instinctively, we question the accepted
treatment plan—but, what about the “new study”? In an effort to
the be in first place on the information highway, we see all avenues of
media taking the “new study” as lore and running with it! Who
questions that?!
We,
both pediatricians and parents, must therefore take a step back and
remind ourselves of the process of science—from hypothesis, to new
studies, to accepted practice. As a physician, I have access to an
overabundance of medical information. It is my job to process this
information and deliver the appropriate care to you or you child.
However, I believe that as parents, we are implored to also understand
this process and what really is “scientific literacy”. As I was
debating on how I would begin my new column “The Doctor’s Corner” I
recalled an article I had read some time ago regarding the scientific
process. The article was written by a chemistry professor and it
reminds us of the scientific process and how much weight we should put
into the “scientific information” we receive. I have
reprinted the article here (see link to right title “Scientific
Literacy”)2.
So, the
next time you read about some new study advising you not to give your
child the medically accepted treatment of choice, look to the source.
Has this information been peer-reviewed? Is it the commonly
accepted medical practice that has been proven to work? Discuss
the new information with your doctor before jumping to conclusions.
Ultimately, we, as pediatricians, want to provide exactly what you, as
parents, want for your child—the best possible health care.
1 - “What
is ‘Scientific Literacy’”, Forum on Science and Technology, Phi Kappa
Phi Forum, Vol. 82, No. 3 (Summer 2002).
2 -
Reprinted from Phi Kappa Phi Forum, Volume 82, Number 3 (Summer 2002).
Copyright by Daniel Berger. By permission of the publishers.
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