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Disheartening and Misleading NYTimes Article


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Certainly paints PAs in a poor light.  The impression I get from the article is that this company is a huge cash cow profiting off procedures that are not always medical necessary.  The PA/NP providers doing them are probably following what their physician medical directors are telling them they are required to do.  So, to say that the increase in biopsies is just because it is a PA/NP seeing the patient is not an accurate reflection.  My guess is they are told to biopsy everything.  Easy money. 

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Those are some pretty negative findings, but it really seemed like they were really coming after PAs. I just wonder how often things are missed or aggressive treatment is offered by MDs and DOs, as well. The examples listed are problematic, but seem liked isolated incidents that could possibly happen to anyone. I don’t know. I do always think it’s prudent to get a second or even third opinion when you’re a patient facing something potentially serious and invasive.
My father in law was treated for prostate cancer and saw 3 different doctors with 3 different opinions and plans for treating it. 2/3 were much more invasive and aggressive treatments and he went with the more conservative doc and has been doing great ever since. I’m just saying, it’s medicine, not just one type of practitioner of medicine who can make these types of mistakes or misjudgments. Seems Iike an unfair and biased article.

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5 hours ago, JMPAC said:

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 Seems Iike an unfair and biased article.

That's exactly what it was.  The problem is that the people reading this fake news-and this is it, poorly researched and presented- are the:

1.  Lawmakers, who worry about putting such responsibility into "assistants"

2. Insurance companies, who already hate "assistants" are evidently costing them so much money in unwarranted procedures

3. Patients, the most important group, the ones we swore an oath to "do no harm" 

Look, we all know this article is bullshit.  However, the PA profession has just been punched in the kidneys, while I see that ads about "wonderful" nps.

The real (and only) question - what is the PA profession going to do about it?  And it better not be a rebuttal in the comments. 

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My favorite quote is this:

Ms. Rought said her “rule of thumb” was that 20 percent of actinic keratoses progress to cancer.

While that might once have been the popular understanding, research now suggests otherwise. Dr. Martin A. Weinstock, a professor of dermatology and epidemiology at Brown University, reported in a 2009 study of men with a history of two or more skin cancers that were not melanomas that the risk of an actinic keratosis progressing to skin cancer was about 1 percent after a year, and 4 percent after four years. More than 50 percent of the lesions went away on their own.

After all the isolated anecdotes in the article, you'd think when the writers say, "research now suggests otherwise" they might follow with some actual research that suggests otherwise, but none of those numbers contradicts what the PA said. I'm sure this point will be lost on the pseudointellectuals who read the NYT.

This is outrage journalism in action, and they do it because it works. It's the media equivalent of trolling. A sober, measured article in the same newspaper would likely have not gotten posted here and we wouldn't be sending the NYT free traffic and comments. By giving it attention we give it life. I'm not really sure there is any response that is better than just ignoring it. I hope that forum members reading this will stop supporting outrage outlets like Fox and Breitbart on the right or MSNBC and NYT on the left. It's all fun and outrage until you're the one being trolled. Start supporting outlets like PBS or NPR that at least try to be fair.

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