Page 33 - Delaware Medical Journal - September/October 2020
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BOOK REVIEW
exquisite sarcasm, Dalrymple skewers unsuspecting authors who dare try to get away with shoddy thinking, unsupported conclusions, or psychobabble.
An article in the January 19, 2017
issue of the journal, “Transparency
of Physicians,” piqued Dalrymple’s interest. He objects that such internet reviews “treat doctors as if they were restaurants.” He questions whether such reviews change physicians’ behavior
and posits that such evaluations merely serve the bureaucratic interests of hospital systems that can boast of high rates of patient satisfaction. This may
be of great concern to the increasing number of physicians who are now employed by large hospital systems and who now rely on Zagat-like reviews
that may determine the renewal of their employment contracts. Dalrymple rightly points out that a doctor may object to
what a patient wants; this may not earn sterling reviews, but it may well be what is most appropriate medically.
As the death toll of the coronavirus outbreak mounts, Dalrymple in his comments on a February 16, 2017 article about the rising danger of street drugs points out the startling death statistics in the other great American epidemic: opiate overdoses. In 2017, 49,000 died
of a drug overdose. Dalrymple asks
the troubling question: is the medical profession equally responsible with drug companies for the epidemic of opioid deaths? He then charges that a portion of the American medical profession “has been grossly irresponsible in its prescription of opioids.”
In other articles, Dalrymple comments on genetic engineering, prostate cancer screening (he demurs), and weighty politically-charged issues such as
conscientious objection in health care and physician-assisted suicide.
Dalrymple nudges the editors of the journal to provide more pro and con commentary, particularly on medical issues that affect social and political policy.
style, with its skepticism and dissent, off-putting, but they will surely admire viewing a keen mind as it dissects articles and asks questions that the that, this book is well worth reading.
CONTRIBUTOR
■ James F. Lally, MD is a retired radiologist and a member of the Medical Society of Delaware Editorial Board.
Sharon Ruth 302.397.0173 Sharon.Ruth@usi.com
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Del Med J | September/October 2020 | Vol. 92 | No. 5 225
