In planning out my study for this summer, I defined my project in part by the questions I wasn't asking. Things like pain managment training and cultural issues ("We're poor/Xhosa/coloured. People like us suffer. Rich people get medications.") will need a different sort of investigation, and this was anticipated to one degree or another. But yesterday it was brought to my attention that a new question arose last week.
"The Michael Jackson thing is going to set us back. People are going to be afraid of opioids again," said a pain specialist. Now, there's a lot that can and has been said about MJ's death, but this was the first time I had thought of how it might impact medical care. Christian Sinclair, who writes about palliative medicine in the new media, had a post or two about it as well.
What a tragic legacy it would be if his death erected yet another barrier to pain management for people who need it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment