For years, patients with atherosclerosis have been told that arteries clogged up with fat cause heart attack by blocking blood flow. Clean out the fat, put in a little scaffolding stent and they’re good to go.
Now researcher know that the risk of MI is much more complicated than that. Apparently, patients don’t. The Globe reports that at Baystate Medical Center in Western Massachusets, a study found that almost all patients thought the stents used to prop open their arteries would prevent a heart attack. But their doctors had told most of them before the procedure that it would do nothing more than relieve chest pain.
This yawning disconnect between what doctors say and patients hear was reported in a study published yesterday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Physicians say the communications gap extends to other types of elective treatments, as well, resulting in patient confusion and perhaps overuse of some procedures.
Lesson?: Patients and doctors need to better understand evidence-based medicine. For example, when the UPSTF tried to tell women that women that mammograms between 40-50 won’t keep them from dying of breast cancer, many refused to believe it.
Who can blame them? Patients have been been getting mixed, oversimplifeid messages for years. Clear out artery, scan breast – all clear. It just doesn’t work that way.