Michael Kirsch, MD Redux

For the past 30 minutes, my cell phone has buzzed repeatedly, urging me not to climb out of this rabbit hole. “Come back,” it beckons, “we’re not finished yet.” When KevinMD deleted my first comment about Dr. Kirsch, I decided to keep further comments on my own blogs so they don’t mysteriously disappear again. Now I’ve learned that I’ve been demoted: Instead of my comments on KevinMD posting immediately, I must receive prior approval before my comments can be viewed by anyone else on Kevin’s blog. All because I pull aside the curtain so people could see the real “insider.” Next will be the stocks. Then an outright ban on my creative postings. So, as with the previous post, I’ve copied Dr. Kirsch’s comments here and will comment below. [phone buzzes yet again]  OK, I’m typing as fast as I can … Dr. Kirsch writes: I have read the comments to my post on this blog and elsewhere. Regrettably, some have resorted to vituperative language and demonization, rather than to engage in civil discourse and debate. If I have made factual errors regarding the reimbursement of ED physicians, then I am prepared to stand down from these comments. The fact that one commenter above who was particularly critical of me wrote, “the hospital loves it when I order tests”, suggests that there do exist economic incentives. I am not prepared to retreat, however, from my belief that over-diagnosis and over-treatment are embedded in American medical cultu...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Random Thoughts Source Type: blogs