Individual doctors have never been happy in the past with standards set up by panels. Doctors have always differed in opinions of how to treat patients. Yet, their peers on boards often tell them what the “accepted” treatment may be for a particular condition at a given time. Those suggestions are predicated on averages and doctors correctly insist no patient is “average.”
As I noted in my earlier blog on life expectancy in the U. S., according to a study by Harvard's School of Public Health, disparities within the country exist among Asian-Americans, African-Americans, as well as those of other ethnicity. There are inherent DNA factors and life-long diet and culture influences, of which a personal physician will be aware.
I repeat my warning: They may not be called death panels, but any board-dominated edict telling a doctor how to treat an average patient that also considers that patient’s age and related illnesses, is, in effect, a euphemism for restricting treatment.
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