Monday, November 16, 2009

Breast Cancer, The New Guidelines For Mammogram And Checkup, USA.



As the world moves towards better health care, the shift in information and right to choice is moving more from the domain of 'The Doctor Says ' to what information is there and to the patient himself. In other words ,the market oriented, client oriented  forces in the treatment and approach to medicine has arrived. As the treatment options become more expensive and varied , the market  forces are geared towards a more well informed choice. The medical market seems to represent a real test or quality of the 'product' screen as the best outcome is the real test and the real result that will be the bench mark for any treatment.
breast cancer has been to this day  a best diagnosis that can be tested as all it's treatment ,choice, from diagnosis to the cosmetic impact is there for the people to monitor and watch. It can be taken as a test also for improving the results, improving the equipment in both diagnostic and treatment purposes.



2 comments:

Daanish said...

This is a contraversial guideline at this time,mamogram starting age 40 vs 50,what is the state of health care in Pakistan.Is there any central statistics or guideline or you just follow west blindly as in all walks of life:)

MEER said...

yes daanish, the controversy is raging in the US. There was a larry king program in which dr sanjay gupta disagreed with these guidelines. As a practising gynae, I also will advise yearly mammos for women over forty. The issues in Pakistan are different. The awareness for breast cancer is more important. In rural and remote areas especially, no acess to lady doctors is there. Focus should be on awareness by tv, radio and any health worker. Men should teach men to get their women checked up. Xrays would be the test of choice but if they can go to hospital they should be taught monthly self exam by lady doctors or health personnel. We are way back in detection, leave aside the issue of this kind of guidelines. For us insurance costs do not arise in policy planning.