Announcement of a New Venture called Sensible Medicine
Dear readers,
First of all, thank you for subscribing to my newsletter. I will continue to write here at Stop and Think, but I am also joining a new venture called Sensible Medicine.
In the past decade, my writing, podcasting and public speaking has been for healthcare professionals. I enjoy that a lot, and plan to continue doing so. I’ve benefited from superb editorial support at TheHeart.org | Medscape Cardiology. And I hope you are listening to the This Week in Cardiology podcast, where I review the week’s top studies.
Yet I feel like something is missing. I want to branch out and create content for a wider audience, beyond healthcare people. You might say, Ok, Mandrola, just write op-eds or a book for the general public.
The problem, and perhaps you’ve noticed from reading Stop and Think, is that I don’t stick to the institutional narrative. I like to question the status quo, things like the business model of medical journals or professional societies. I question sclerotic thinking and the therapeutic fashions of the day.
This approach makes it hard to write in the normal places.
That is why I agreed to join forces with other like-minded colleagues in forming Sensible Medicine.
The business model of Substack is different. If you like the content, and feel it is worthy, then you subscribe for a nominal fee.
The hope is that because we depend on reader support, not advertisers, we will have the freedom to embrace what Emerson called for in his American Scholar speech.
To think clearly and not influenced by tradition or historic views.
My goal is to introduce the general public to a Neutral Martian approach to medical evidence.
My first column on Sensible Medicine addresses the state of medical-decision-making. Teaser: it is ill.
The whole thing feels a bit like stepping into the grid of a bike race. You don’t know what will happen, but the nervous energy feels good.
John. Be careful. With out a measurable. definition. of "sensible medicine", you are going down a path that sounds and feels like a very slippery one. Years ago I was asked. to organize and run our "quality assurance" program. The problem was and still is defining "quality". Not being satisfied with the "quality assurance" results, the notion of pursuing "high value". care. was given birth.. High value care is simply quality divided by cost. So quality is now replaced with value. But since neither value or cost can be measured, this term. is even worse than the former. I guess just associating oneself with all these ideas, places one on the side of the angels. A new religion is born.
So glad I came across this Dr Mandrola. Was a fan of your newsletters years before I ended up with a Pacemaker. Your journalistic style is so on point, no matter how much content you need to pack in. Got your book, signed onto this because no one else puts these issues out there as starkly, skillfully. Listening to your podcast right now! Thanks for humanely including the quality of life issues too. It matters and there is mostly a massive vacuum in medical info access in terms of toll on patient's lives.