Let's put it to a vote

💬 comments

Asking the Facebook peanut gallery to vote on your patient's next medication is not an appropriate way to practice medicine.

When a physician has a clinical question about a patient is unsure about the next step in the management of a certain condition or what medication option to choose, they might turn to a reputable clinical reference in which to look up the answer, consult a specialist, or privately discuss with a trusted colleague. What they don't do (unless they want to open themselves up to potentially massive amounts of medicolegal liability if things go badly) is attempt to crowdsource the answer online by putting it up for a Facebook vote. These are real patients' lives we're dealing with here, not some fucking livestream of Twitch Plays Doctor. Patients, especially vulnerable patients such as elderly individuals with dementia residing in nursing homes, deserve devoted, compassionate care from properly educated and trained physicians, not doltish midlevels who think it's acceptable to (mis)manage their patients as if they're playing some sort of massively multiplayer online game.