Dr. Thompson's Blog

Parenting Medical and Other Information on Apps and the Web

I am having a hard time understanding why parents need to resort to Apps and the Internet to raise their children. Where are the family doctors and the pediatricians? Don't the doctors talk to their patients any more? I still hear from parents whose children I cared for when I first started my pediatric practice in 1963.

I think part of the problem is that parents are so busy these days that looking something up on their Smartphone or other gadget may be faster than trying to get in touch with a doctor. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of misinformation on the Internet. The New York Times today has an article stating that WebMD now has a parenting app. I have done interviews on WebMD and know they are more reliable than several other sources. However, once again if there is a problem with a child, the doctor should know about it.

Another reason I believe that parents are turning to all these artifical ways to get information is that most medical schools these days are not teaching practical pediatrics. Now it is all about theory and technology.   I think this is a tragedy. I had a classroom built onto my office where I held free monthly parenting classes. They were lots of fun and both the parents and I learned a lot.

Why Patients Settle for Inadequate or Poor Medical Care

I am always amazed and sad when intelligent people, who can afford the best medical care, settle for poor or even bad medical care. I've thought al lot about why this occurrs and think there are several reasons.  The first is probably that when a patient feels ill, he or she doesn't  have the energy to ask questions or do networking to find the best care. Often, too, a primary care doctor will make a referral to another physician, who is a friend or someone known through an organization or even a health club. This happens far too often, I am afraid. No patient should ever accept a referral without some investigating,  hopefully some networking, and asking several questions.

If you go to your state's medical board Web site and enter a doctor's name, you should be able to see if malpractice suits have occurred, the number of years in practice, training, and if the physician is board-certified or qualified. These are all important facts to discover. If a patient has a life threatening illness, metastatic cancer, or other bad prognosis, then often a second opinion should be obtained in another city or location. An example of this is if your treatment in your own city or location is not helping, then seeking care elsewhere could make the difference between life and death. Each adult patient or each parent must take control of their own health care or a family member's, if they are in charge. The days of the old family doctor, who had all the answers, are long gone and it is up to each of us to find the best  medical care for ourselves, our elderly parents, or children.

 

When Medical Students and Doctors Put $ and Life Style Above Patient Care

I was having a discussion last week with my wise twenty-one-year-old grandson and complaining about a young medical student who told me his life style was more important than getting the best medical training possible. I was appalled when the man said this. My grandson said, "I don't think he is much different from  many of the twenty and thirty-year-olds today. Many have been raised to think that money and position are more important than anything else."

I felt very sad that any physician or medical student would put good patient care at the bottom of their list of priorities. What is going to happen to patient care if money and life style become the overriding concerns? But if young people aspire to work at Goldman Sachs or similar companies because of the enormous salaries and bonuses, i guess greed has become the dominant force in our society. What about the kids who don't have financial backing or a good education? What do they do? If the Governor of Pennsylvania can keep public schools, in one part of his state, from receiving any money and the teachers are working without pay, we have major problems in our country. I heard one commentator say that by not educating kids, it gives the rich much more control over voters. That is tragic and we must start to make some changes or I feel that medical care and our lives in general will be in serious trouble.

Beware of Hypnotherapists who are not M.D.s or Psychologists

At a recent Christmas party, I was talking with a young woman who told me she was a hypnotherapist. I asked about her training and she said she had a few hours of training in hypnosis and then could start seeing patients.  I was startled and outraged  and said, "Don't you have to have a state license or a certificate of some kind.?" "No", she said. I was appalled and thought about the years of training  a psychiatrist or psychologist have to have and the state examinations they must pass. I did some research and found that in California these individuals are "self-regulated and don't qualify for state licensing". Also no specific number of hours are required for an individual to put out a sign and say he or she is a hypotherapist.

I think this is extremely dangerous and know of a case where this kind of therapy by a non-licensed individual, with no medical background, contributed greatly to an individual's death. When I discussed this case with an excellent psychiatrist, he was appalled and immediately wanted some action to be taken. In discussing this with another psychiatrist, he said that psychiatry is now so fragmented that people are unwilling to take on an issue like this, even when it may put a patient's life at stake. Something needs to be done. Hypnotherapists can cause irrevocable damage and should be reqirred to have years of training comparable to the training of an M.D. or psychologist.