Healthcare miracles - Fact or Myth
We get carried away by a mere advertisement on internet that promises to treat the untreatable. Before we choose to opt for it, we must think twice, suggests Dr Fiaz Fazili.Storytelling is a powerful tool – and never more so than in public policy. What got me thinking on this subject was this story which I received in my mail,
"Say no to Angiography, dialysis, Insulin and Surgery. Hope and cure for cancer and all non-curable diseases like Diabetes, Kidney failure, Heart blockages, Arthritis, Asthma, Aids etc. Many patients are cured and saved from death. Dr.Luqman (name changed) has discovered a new miracle medicine guarantees total cure for all these diseases. This medicine is a result of many decades hard work of scientist, and tested by reputed international labs having no side effect.Dr.Luqman is visiting your city shortly, on public demand. To avoid rush and for early booking contact…..etc etc".
How many times you came across such an appealing statement or something resembling it? All of us agree anyone who guarantees a complete cure for incurable diseases like cancer or AIDS either has to be Nobel laureate genius for his wonderful discovery. Nowadays it is rare to find saints with supernatural healing power also they never display their extraordinary power with announcements like what we read above. To whom we commonly fall prey is either an imposter or a charlatan? Wherever there is cancer there is someone eager desperate, frightened and vulnerable people to part from their cash in exchange for a dubious and sometimes dangerous 'cures'. A needy man is greedy, ever ready for the sources of alleviation from anywhere, be it religious ruqaya,s or therapies of alternative medicine. Miracles do happen that nobody can deny but they don't occur so frequently, hence the name .Then ads like that gives hope for the sick or dying patient in the face of inevitable death. Next you see the sting, a pathetic inquiry by a desperate potential consumer in your email, "Do you know about Dr.Luqman who guarantees complete cure of any kind of Cancer. My sis has 4th stage breast cancer, she is 28yrs; I want to know is this good and authentic? This is an herbal preparation; his website is luqmans cancercure.com. (Name changed)Need help contact ...@.com,"
For many years critics have been raising doubts about fringe medical practices, but the popularity of such nostrums seems undiminished. Why would so many well-educated people continue to sell and purchase such a treatment? The answer, I believe, lies in a combination of vigorous marketing of unsubstantiated claims by "alternative" healers, the poor level of scientific knowledge in the public at large, and the "will to believe" so prevalent among seekers attracted to the new age movement. What modern medicine has taught us is EBM - evidence based Medicine and practice; Concepts first mooted by noted Muslim scientist and physician, Ibn sina (Avicenna) as early as 1000 CE, that we should be careful & critically appraise all the evidences to get the truth before we reach any logical conclusion or implement it, strive to seek the truth not to be biased by opinions. With health sources easily available on internet any one can fall prey to non scientific treatments. "Good doctors rely on both their expertise and the evidence, says Sackett, the coiner of term "Evidence based medicine (EBM)." The practice of EBM requires integrating individual clinical experience with the best available external clinical evidence. One of the greatest achievements of EBM has been the development of health resources which summarize the best available evidence on a health topic. Without current best evidence, practice risks becoming rapidly out of date, to the detriment of patients. Physicians have been using evidence to make medical decisions for over 50 years.
The problem was that the research wasn't always good. People tended to assume that, just because something was shown by a research study and published in a journal; it was correct and could be used in practice. Instead, what we found was that the quality of the information from these studies was quite variable. Practioners say it is so hard to be up-to-date? Old habits die hard. The shift from traditional to EBM is doable, but it is not easy. Internet is a powerful tool of EBM concept, but it's tough for busy health professionals to keep up to date with advances in Medicine in presence of 50,000 journals with about 3 million articles. Annually 1000Medline new articles are added to it. Change, such as voluntarily finding and employing the best evidence requires not just time and skill but a personal attitude and commitment to change. In recent years, physicians have brought attention to a number of medical myths that physicians learned in their training. Without the aid of evidence which matters, not only patients can get mislead, physicians can also easily fall into a "clinical cascade," trying to be certain that their clinical decisions are correct. Please be wary of unsubstantiated anecdotes on the web (or anywhere else); you have no way of knowing if the person ever had cancer or heart blockage, much less that they have been 'cured. The man is trying to sell us a product. Many dubious health products remain on the market primarily because satisfied or dubious customers offer testimonials to their worth. Essentially, they are saying, "I tried it and I got better, so it must be effective." This is what is done in these media ads, interviews.
But there is a great need to take utmost caution so that we are not misled by this dubiousness.
(Dr Fiaz Fazili is a Member of International EBM group),
