Knowing when not to operate

Good surgeons know how to operate, better ones when to operate, and the best when not to operate. This famous saying surely applies right across medicine. The minute that a surgeon cuts the skin or a physician prescribes a drug, harm is done. Whatever benefit a treatment may bring will have to exceed that harm before the doctor is doing good. Unfortunately, many treatments have no benefit or only marginal benefit. Thus doctors can dedicate their lives to medicine and at the end have done only slightly more …