Folks have been asking for my response to this: Happy to provide!
In this video, @RealDoctorMike affirms that every factual point we make in our episode is correct. So we're off to a great start! His only criticism seems to be of our tone. I'll unpack:
In this video, @RealDoctorMike affirms that every factual point we make in our episode is correct. So we're off to a great start! His only criticism seems to be of our tone. I'll unpack:
He seems to have two complaints: 1) That we're too mean to hospitals that systematically overcharge their patients, 2) that our mammogram segment might frighten women away from getting mammograms all together.
Regarding the first point: It's unclear why Mike believes that hospitals should be above criticism. He agrees that their pricing is capricious and inflated, and that it has devastating costs for the uninsured. He even criticizes these practices in the pharmaceutical industry!
So why not hospitals? Mike claims that hospitals aren't in it for the money, but there are thousands of for-profit hospitals in the US, and even non-profits wildly overcharge. Yes, there are many causes of high health care costs, but this is one of them, and it deserves scrutiny.
My job is to use comedy to point out bad business practices that hurt people; I'm not in the business of protecting the feelings of hospital bosses. I respectfully reject this criticism.
2nd: Mike worries that we send the message that no one should ever get a mammogram. This is odd, since our episode clearly and explicitly lays out the USPSTF guidance: That you should discuss routine mammograms with your doctor starting in your 40s.
Mike also seems to take issue with our criticism of how mammograms were over-promoted in the 80s. However, as he admits, those myths contributed to dangerous overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Since they're still with us today, it's important that we correct them.
Finally, Mike says that as a doctor he might have presented the information differently. I agree that when covering medical issues, deferring to doctors is essential. That's why our script was reviewed by physician, cancer researcher, and our expert for this ep, Dr. Joann Elmore.
We did multiple rounds of revision on this script based on Dr. Elmore's extensive notes and feedback, which drew from her clinical experience treating cancer patients. It was very important to us and her that the segment accurately represented the advice she'd give in her office.
Of course, we knew taking a comedic look at such an important medical topic risked misunderstanding; that's why this segment had one of the most thorough fact-checking and review process we've ever done. We took it extremely seriously, and sacrificed comedy for clarity many times
That said, we were of course limited by the 6-minute segment runtime - that's why we brought Dr. Elmore in for an extended interview on our podcast, where she went deep on the nuances of the issue: maximumfun.org/adam-ruins-eve…
I want to thank @RealDoctorMike for thinking critically about our episode; and it's certainly possible for reasonable people to disagree about its effectiveness! But I stand by our episode's accuracy and credibility, and his critiques gave me no reason to question it.
(I enjoy using Twitter to respond to videos like these from time to time - here's a previous thread, regarding our feral cat segment: )
