Bad Medicine Pat 3 Analysis

In the podcast, “Bad Medicine, Pat 3: Death by Diagnosis”, Dubner talks with many researchers and people involved in the medical field about the irony of the enduring effects of medicine. Dubner shockingly reacts to a conclusion mentioned in the podcast that states medical error is the third leading cause of death in the United States behind heart disease and cancer. How has medical error earned its place in the number three position and what can be done to analyze and understand this ranking? Medical error can include writing prescription drugs when not needed, resulting in over treatment. America is the leader in consumption of painkillers. Ironically, painkillers are designed to help and alleviate problems, when in reality these opioids …show more content…
Makary discusses that patients do not demand the why or how behind a prescription, but just name drop and want what they want without a scientific reason. Doctors, being concerned with patient satisfaction and upholding their doctor reputation, are more willing to be lenient writing prescriptions. How does patient satisfaction measure successful patient outcomes? Makary argues that it doesn't. Makary points out that the patient cares more about skill, judgement and empathy from a doctor. Also, just because a doctor scores well on the above, does this still result in a positive health outcome for patients? Not to forget that the reasons for going to see a doctor, in the first place, is to be healthy. Makary and co-author Michael Daniel, found that medical error is the third leading cause of death. Dubner comments by understanding there is an oversupply and over-demand of medicine. Makary questions the amount of medical errors that arise and if these are proportional to the amount of practiced medicine. Makary then talks about the false documentation of death certificates. He uses this to prove that “medical error” is not a recorded cause of death, so it is difficult to accurately determine what really went wrong in a patient’s death and what the medical error really was. Anupam Jena, a Harvard doctor and economist, mentions that medical error encompasses both diagnosis and commission. Jena argues that medical error happens throughout the medical system so at times, pin-pointing the time of medical error is difficult. Makary still claims it’s the health-care system as a whole that is involved. Makary urges for concrete follow-up data with questions including satisfaction with a procedure and how knowledgable a