Saturday, January 10, 2009

How are we supposed to know what we're supposed to know

"Every encounter between doctor and patient is a cross-cultural event". Thank you Dr Jeffrey Borkan – who makes this startlingly simple and yet startlingly astute statement in, 'Patients and Doctors', where doctors write about patients that changed their lives. By articulating this Truism, Borkin validates the struggle of being a stranger in a strange land: In the doctor's office, clinic, lab, hospital, hospice – we're the immigrants, and we're asked to on-the-spot learn a new language and culture. Yes, yes, there's tons and tons of health information here in cyberspace and beyond, but most of the billion search results assumes we the masses have been trained to research, evaluate, analyze, interpret, assess and apply what we've found. I'm bombarded with 'take responsibility for your own health' directives. There's a fatal flaw in this push for personal accountability "how are we supposed to know what we're supposed to know?