The confidence to doubt

doi:10.1136/bmj.39524.482535.47

BMJ 2008;336 (22 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39524.482535.47

Editor's Choice

Editor’s Choice

The confidence to doubt

Fiona Godlee, editor, BMJ

fgodlee@bmj.com

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In the documentary The English Surgeon reviewed this week (doi:10.1136/bmj.39511.711227.3A), English surgeon Henry Marsh debateswith his Ukrainian colleague whether success in medicine isabout dedicating your life to saving patients or accumulatingacademic honours. Why should it be one or the other, I foundmyself asking. So I’m intrigued to find this conflictbetween academic and clinical medicine as a subplot in our Headto Head article on metabolic syndrome (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39484.636586.94,doi: 10.1136/bmj.39477.500197.AD).

Edwin Gale, an academic clinician, argues that we should dumpthe syndrome because it has no clinical value. In the syndrome’sdefence, George Alberti and P Z Zimmet, both also academic clinicians,say its value lies in its ease of use in primary care. Galesays it has spawned a flourishing academic industry but is hardlyused by practising clinicians. Alberti and Zimmet characterisethe syndrome’s critics as living in a . . . [Full text of this article]

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