Advice: work with your doc, not for him/her
Even if there are medical advances, your treatment may be 'behind the times' if your doctor does not know about them.
Dr. Rich O'Neill, psychologist at SUNY Upstate, points to a pair of studies on people with stable coronary disease, which showed that prescription drugs alone did as good a job as stents, inserted to open arteries. But years after, there's been no change in the number of stent-inserting operations. Researchers concluded that there's an educational gap---doctors are not keeping up witht he research.
The advice for patients: ask your doctor what the latest research is, in the area of concern, and then do some research on your own. You'll find that many technical papers on the internet are already 'translated' into understandable English. O'Neill says Upstate also has a library devoted specifically to helping patients get the latest info about health issues and treatments.
And those two studies on stents vs medication? the Courage trial or BARI2-d
