Contrasting Views and Uses of Medical Knowledge
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Double Lens
Contrasting Views and Uses of Medical Knowledge
‘‘ I’ m not a‘ pill wimp’ like some of my patients,’’ one physician said.‘‘ I’ m more rational, because I know more.’’ Illness affected how these doctors not only acted, but also perceived the profession, patients, and risks and benefits of treatments. After acknowledging their initial diagnosis to the degree that they did, these physician had to weigh and assess different kinds of medical knowledge, approaching it in varying ways. In general, they assessed risks and benefits differently than did other patients, drawing on professional experiences and abilities in evaluating research findings. Overall, they found that medical knowledge helped immensely in many ways, but posed potential problems, proving to be a double-edged sword. Their views and communication of such risks and benefits are important since medicine increasingly involves complex sets of often conflicting data. Doctors regularly present this information to patients who grapple to understand, but may not interpret it correctly. These physicians revealed how medical knowledge can take on magical properties, but be limited, too.
Varieties of Medical Uncertainty
Previously, these physicians had to confront these challenges of medical ambiguity only with regard to those for whom they cared. Now, countless uncertainties hovered over these physicians’ own lives. Though they had handled medical uncertainty for others, facing it themselves was very different. They approached these vagaries in a range of ways— from
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