Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/5GktQvHI9Lc It’s no secret that the USA has the most expensive healthcare in the world, but a new commentary by clinicians at Cornell and the University of Texas-San Antonio suggests our specialty-driven clinical practice guidelines may be at fault.  This perspective comes from a panel of doctors who have practiced in other wealthy countries before coming to the US to live.   When they moved to the US, they were surprised to find that the recommendations for bowel cancer screening here differed so radically from those in their native countries.  Then, they looked at the panels making the recommendations.   In the US, the American College of Gastroenterology panel, composed entirely of, guess who, gastroenterologists, universally recommends colonoscopies.  In Europe, the European Society of Medical Oncology panel with six medical oncologists, one gastrointestinal surgeon, and no gastroenterologists states that colonoscopy has a limited role and recommends stool biochemical screening i