To the editor:
Early childhood memories include tonsillectomies for me and my brother Leonard at the Aroostook General Hospital, forerunner of the Houlton Regional Hospital. The ice cream reward did not make up for going through the procedure and having painful sore throats. The ice cream was vanilla, never really a flavor for us — more like the absence thereof, as white is the absence of color. Leonard preferred chocolate and I, butter pecan.
A photo in a recent Pioneer, of the Hospital’s new nuclear medicine imaging camera, gave a glimpse of how hospitals have changed. The purchase of the camera was made possible by “a capital campaign for Houlton Regional Hospital.” Phase 2 of this campaign is to fund the expansion and enhancement of the medical imaging department.
According to Elizabeth Dulin, director of the Health Foundation, the camera cost $300,000. The Radiology Department says it now hopes to replace their four-slice CT (computer tomography) scanner with a 64-slice one.
A New York Times front-page article, covering two inside pages in the June 29 issue, states unequivocally that medical benefits of CT scans of the heart are unproven,” and that scans for other areas of the body are also in question. “CT scans which are typically billed at $500 to $1,500, have never been proved in large medical studies to be better than older or cheaper tests. And they expose patients to large doses of radiation, equivalent to at least several hundred X-rays, creating a small but real cancer risk.”
Manufacturers of CT scanners are not required by the Food and Drug Association to conduct studies to prove that the products benefit patients, only to certify that the scanners are safe and provide accurate images.
Overuse of medical technology is one reason for spiraling health care costs with no increase in real benefits to patients. Purchasing a machine results in pressure to use it. All private insurers and Medicare want to demand more independent studies before agreeing to pay for certain scans. After announcing that it would do just that, Medicare backed down under pressure from heavy lobbying by cardiologists. Excellus Blue Cross gave up on requiring a lengthy approval process after pressure from Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo’s office.
Too many patients, fearful and full of faith in their doctors, seldom question prescriptions. At times doctors should trust their intuition, based on previous experience, for diagnosis and let high-tech equipment sit idle unless they can guarantee that patients will benefit from its use. Patients must ask questions, weigh the risks, and then make their own decisions. I wonder if we really needed those tonsillectomies.
Byrna Porter Weir
Rochester, N.Y.