"Even today, with a high-tech health-care system that costs the nation $2 trillion a year, there is little or no evidence that many widely used treatments and procedures actually work better than various cheaper alternatives."
In case you had any doubts about the need to take an active role in your own health affairs, this article series from the May, 2006 issue of BusinessWeek might motivate you in that regard.
Most of us aren't trained to even follow all of the medical vocabulary around us, let alone have in-depth understanding of health challenges.
"'Because there are no definitive answers, you are at the whim of where you are and who you talk to,' says Dr. Gary M. Kirsh at the Urology Group in Cincinnati."
But we can't go passive and abdicate our role in what can be life-and-death decisions. Somewhere short of doing 'self doctoring', there is a place for active questioning, personal research, seeking out other cases, etc. that the individual should consider. The risks are too great not to, for both our finances and our health.
Improvements are in the works, such as the Archimedes software tool described in the cover article, but you and I need to be proactive today, before that next prescription or outpatient procedure.
See the rest of the article series:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/toc/06_22/B3986magazine.htm
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