Medical myths

Festive medical myths.

In the pursuit of scientific truth, even widely held medical beliefs require examination or re-examination. Both physicians and non-physicians sometimes believe things about our bodies that just are not true. As a reminder of the need to apply scientific investigation to conventional wisdom, we previously discussed the evidence disputing seven commonly held medical myths. The holiday season pre...

BMJ Mixed messages Medical myths

Surmounting Myths and Mindsets in Medical Malpractice

edical malpractice is in the news, again. The early 2000s have seen the third upheaval in medical liability insurance over the last three decades. States have as always been the first responders, but liability reform has also become a high-profile federal issue. Physicians, their liability insurers, and their allies promote state and federal tort reform to curb lawsuits. Their key goal is a “ca...

Medical history and medical practice: persistent myths about the foreskin.

Although many 19th-century misconceptions about the foreskin have been dispelled since it was shown that infantile phimosis was not an abnormality, the ideas that ritual or religious circumcision arose as a hygiene measure, and that circumcision makes no difference to sexual response, have persisted. The first idea should be dismissed as a myth and the second has been seriously questioned by mo...

Juries and medical malpractice claims: empirical facts versus myths.

Juries in medical malpractice trials are viewed as incompetent, antidoctor, irresponsible in awarding damages to patients, and casting a threatening shadow over the settlement process. Several decades of systematic empirical research yields little support for these claims. This article summarizes those findings. Doctors win about three cases of four that go to trial. Juries are skeptical about ...