Just found this in my files and thought I'd share and then retire
my philosophy.  If you wish to keep sharing, just keep commenting
via private email.
Judy Ritchie

Under Health in May 12-14, 2000: USA Weekend, page 14

Does your doctor use intuition:

An old-time hunch is a good partner for science, say prominent
med school teachers.  by Ann Japenga

For the first time, prominent physicians are declaring that
intuition--knowledge not basd on conscious reasoning or test
results--is a legitimate medical tool.

"I'm a rationalist and a scientist," says Jerome Groopman, MD,
a Harvard Medical School professor and author of
Second Opinions: Stories of Intuition and Choice in the Changing
World of Medicine.  "But here have been many instances when I've
had a deep sense about a patient that is not informed directly by
lab tests.  It is a gut sense."

This gut sense is gaining groud:  On Wednesday, the annual meeting
of the conservative American Phychiatric Associaton will hear about
intuition form Los Angeles psychiatrist Judith Orloff, author of
Dr. Judith Orloff's Guide to Intuitive Healing.

At UCLA, where she is an assistant professor, Orloff is coaching
psychiatry resident Meredith Sagan in intuition-based medicine.
Med schools now teach little about intuition, but Orloff and Sagan
hope their collaboration will serve as a prototype.  "I can't
imagine how I'd practice medicine without intuition," Saga says.
"This is the direction medicine is heading."

Some see it veering in the opposite direction.  Over the past decade,
enthusiasm has grown for "evidence-based" or "outcomesbased"
medicine--the use of tests and treatments proven through rigorous
research.

Managed-care companies maintain that evidence-based medicine will
reduce costs.  Yet Harvard's Groopman says intuition also saves
money.  Example: A man with bone-marrow failure weas being treated
with blood transfusions.  In an intuitive leap, Groopman determined
the patient would benefit from added testosterone (the hormone is
vital for production of red blood cells in men.)  Soon, the man
required only a third as many transfusions.

"My intuition saved this patient's insurance company hundreds of
dollars per unit of blood, plus all the hospital and nursing costs
that go with transfusions," says Groopman.

At the Univeristy of Virginia, associate professor David Slawson MD,
teaches that skilled physicians are like skilled musicians.  A
physician needs to be grounded in science but also must have the
ability to improvise. The result, according to Slawson:
"Good clinical jazz."

How to find an intuitive physician

Doctors Judith Orloff and Jerome Groopman say an intuitive doctor
will... Take time to listen.  Intuition isn't magic.  It relies in
part on a heightened sensitivity to subtle verbal and non-verbal
cues expressed in ordinary conversation.

Encourage second opinions.  An intuitive doctor realizes medicine
has hidden dimensions and accepts that another doctor may be able
to tune into aspects of your case he or she has overlooked.

Honor your hunches about your well-being even when they seem
irrational.  In the most effective collaborations, your doctor
will graft his intuition onto yours.

Keep up with science.  Some doctors may rely too much on intuition.
Each week a wealth of new scientific information is available to
doctors; yours should take advantage of the latest studies.
"Intuition shouldn't be an excuse for not keeping up," says Brian
Haynes MD editor of the journal Evidece-Based Medicine.
b

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