A Doctor Criticizing Another Doctor's Treatment Plan Is a Grave Taboo in Medicine

I often encounter patients or family members who ask me to evaluate the treatment plan devised by another doctor they have seen, and I always politely decline.

This actually touches on a very serious issue: a doctor must not rashly evaluate another doctor's treatment plan, although in reality there are always doctors who do not observe this unwritten rule of the profession.

In the book Being Mortal, the author, Professor Atul Gawande, recounts a case: when Doctor A was treating Patient B, a melanoma patient, he gave B his treatment opinion. B, uneasy, went to ask Doctor C, who considered Doctor A's plan wrong. B did not know what to do and ended up choosing the wrong plan, delaying his treatment.

Later Patient B's condition worsened, and he sued Doctor A. The lawsuit drew Doctor A, Patient B, B's family, and Doctor C all into it.

After Patient B died, the lawsuit continued, going on for nearly ten years. The two doctors and the patient's family were all tormented beyond endurance.

Every doctor has his own treatment experience, of which other doctors may never have heard. To rashly pass judgment to the patient easily creates conflict between the patient and the doctor they saw, and in turn creates conflict between one doctor and another.

So a doctor's momentary pleasure in airing his views plants endless future trouble.

We cannot guarantee that when a major medical mishap befalls the patient, the patient or family will not, because of something we said, go and make trouble for another doctor. Nor can we guarantee that other doctors will not bear a grudge against us and take extreme revenge. So the best choice is not to judge another doctor's treatment plan.

In my early years, lacking experience, I made this mistake, offended colleagues, and caused myself a great deal of trouble.

A teacher I studied under once said to me, obliquely: "Colleagues, colleagues—other doctors are our peers. If you really must comment on the prescriptions other doctors write, always say only one word, 'good,' and say nothing more."

At the time I neither agreed nor disagreed. But as my experience grew, I began from the bottom of my heart to admire my teacher's instruction.

So I also earnestly beg all readers and patients: do not bring me a prescription written by another doctor and ask me how this prescription is, or ask me how effective another doctor is.

This is purely to make things difficult for me, and I will not answer. If people ask too much, I simply delete them, to avoid future trouble.

The medical profession is full of risk everywhere; one moment of carelessness harms both others and oneself. To be a doctor, one must both walk upright oneself and tread cautiously in everything.