Bert--
I want to meet you some time. This is not a personal letter, but it does seem like we may have had similar professional trajectories -- or at least, have wound up in a similar place.
This is a thread about chronic pain meds, but I think it isn't too far off the mark to talk about sociopolitical aspects of medicine, since that is mainly what chronic pain is all about.
And, by extension, not too far off to complain about the hypocrisy of Northwestern Ecotopian (Portland/Seattle) behavior, which pretends to care about the adverse effects human behavior has on the planetary environment, but really just is more of the same "I got mine, now leave me alone" mentality that might sit well with supporters of Donald Trump.
The rant is that this U of W Medical School "Family Medicine Review" turns out to be dumbed down classes aimed at "PCP's" (NP's and PA's who are doing "primary care"-- and doing the work of the corporations that are destroying the medical profession, with the total acquiescence of the doctors) -- not practicing, experienced physicians who come in from the countryside to learn what the gurus in the Ivory Tower are thinking. People who are so politically correct -- yet they eat the most appalling crap at their breaks and luncheons -- box lunches and bottled water, with the residue thrown into the great garbage patch of the Pacific Ocean -- and peddle all the latest drugs, which have never been shown by "randomized controlled trials" to make any practical difference in a real person's life, but cost $200 - $2000 per month (or up to $100,000/month if you have lung cancer).
I asked the "pain specialist" why we now have at least 4 new time-release hydrocodone pain meds - when it has been conclusively established that these meds are contributing to the "epidemic" of opioid mortality. He didn't have an answer, and didn't care.
The Diabetes Specialist said she her job was to tell us about the new drugs, not to tell us what would really help people with diabetes (which wasn't under her control anyway, because it wasn't her business to deal with what people chose to eat or what corporations chose to promote).
The radiologist said it would really helpful if doctors would include some clinical history on the radiology order forms -- except that the EMR didn't allow the history to get to him, so it effectively became useless. But that is just the way it is, so don't worry about it. And for sure, don't complain -- he's well paid.
Yes, I'm pissed.
But I'm so over it.
