Unfortunately this is severely mitigated by two groups - lawyers and patients. The original article could equally be titled 'why lawyers hate science' - as the parent says, many judgements against doctors are based on whether something could have been done, not whether there was evidence to support doing it, or even whether it would have been effective.
That is sheer and utter nonsense.
I'm not so sure it is nonsense (at least the general principle behind the comment, although the statement itself may be incorrect). The care given in a litigious country (i.e. US) is different from that received in a socialised one. While there are a variety of reasons (including insurance companies) that contribute, I think the worry of litigation is a significant reason for the difference in practice. As a lawyer I expect you are more concerned with the outcome of the lawsuit - but I would rather be sued as few times as possible when each time may have knock on effects on my personal and professional life in terms of stress, job satisfaction, and time away from actual work. Around 98% of cases against the medical profession do not reach a guilty verdict, but that's no help if I lose my marriage and my happiness defending medically correct decisions.
it shows that the cell phone companies can track individuals
it shows that the cell phone companies can track a cell phone, or else they need to come clean about the rectal probe and tracking device.
Why, with a few books from the library and maybe a couple Google searches I could probably give your friend that kidney transplant they need. How hard could it be anyway, those overpaid doctors never had to work with Laplace transforms!
I am an underpaid doctor (not yet finished specialty training). Imagine how pissed off I was when I started having to learn all that shit about the law of Laplace (Young-Laplace equation to you engineering types). And the Hagen-Poiseuille equation. Fortunately after my last round of exams I can now forget it entirely, though often I lie awake at night worrying about my patients' bad outcomes because I never worked out the viscosity.
"Ninety percent of baseball is half mental." -- Yogi Berra
