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July 13, 2007
BehindTheMedspeak: When playing doctor isn't indicated
Look at the picture above.
What do you see?
The caption for the photo, which accompanies today's Wall Street Journal Weekend Journal section front page article by Nancy Keates on unconventional treatments for depression, reads, "Psychiatrist Ronald Parks combines conventional and alternative medicine."
Ausculating a sitting patient's abdomen through clothing, as opposed to placing the stethoscope against the skin of a supine individual, is indeed unconventional — besides being diagnostically worthless.
All you'll hear is the rustling of fabric against the instrument.
Why Dr. Parks allowed himself to be pictured looking so foolish — he's an internist as well as a psychiatrist, so he can't claim he forgot — is beyond me.
Oh, well, I suppose it doesn't matter much — I just hope the story spelled his name correctly.
July 13, 2007 at 03:01 PM | Permalink
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Comments
I saw it and I assumed it was just modesty for the camera.
Posted by: Andrew | Jul 13, 2007 11:52:57 PM
Oh, come on.... we all know that the modern blouse has sonic qualities quite different from the age that you attended med school. Why, I'd bet a dime that he can hear a split second sound through her belly....
Posted by: 6.02*10^23 | Jul 13, 2007 9:44:58 PM
I wonder if maybe, in using his unconventional treatments, he performs such pointless maneuvers to try to distract patients away from their psychic miasma.
Like in the photo shown, he could be thinking, "hmm, maybe if I press real hard here, she'll fart, and we can all have a good laugh and go home" or something.
Posted by: Flautist | Jul 13, 2007 4:30:30 PM
