Questions for Your Doctor
Doctors are trained to recommend. They are not trained to spend the appointment laying out what a test, a prescription, or a procedure actually shows in the published evidence, what the false positive rate is, what the absolute benefit looks like in numbers rather than percentages, or what the discoverer of the test in question thinks about it now. The fifteen-minute consultation moves from recommendation to consent before most patients realise a decision was being asked of them. The questions that would slow that sequence down, and bring the evidence into the room, are the ones nobody offers you.
This series puts those questions in your hand. Each instalment covers a single decision point, a screening test, a prescription, or a procedure, with ten questions matched to the moment, each one followed by a Key Fact drawn from the published data and two paragraphs of context that show what the answer should look like if it matches the evidence. A cascade guide at the front identifies which questions matter most depending on where you are in the process. A one-page Quick Reference at the back is designed to be printed and taken to the appointment. Every figure traces back to a named source. The questions are yours to ask. The answers are what the conversation should have been from the beginning.
Available to paid subscribers.