Accuray Inc (ARAY)

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Sadly this is true...

Author: PauvrePapillon
Strong Buy

Re: Saint Francis Hospital gets approval for Cyberknife

"Competing organizations sometimes use the licensing process to try to block one another's plans. Earlier this year, physicians' group Memphis Radiological PC filed formal opposition to Saint Francis' plan to buy the Cyberknife."

Now if doctors really believed in doing what is best for the patient, they sure wouldn't use the power of government to try to thwart patients' access to life-saving technology, would they?

By the way, this report is exactly in line with my experience of the medical profession. We have a great cadre of dedicated physicians who will do anything in their power to save you. This group accounts for five or ten, maybe even fifteen percent of those holding a license to practice medicine. The rest are out to profiteer off the misery and misfortune of the sick and injured. Yes, I know that sounds harsh but if you talk to people who have worked in or around this business, you will find that my view is not all that unusual.

This is why you don’t see revolutionary, life-saving technologies like CyberKnife embraced and adopted overnight by the medical community. This is why it is in fact an uphill battle to introduce any new technology, especially one like CyberKnife that threatens to displace entrenched interests.

And this is why it is so important for patients to do their own research and demand that their physicians explain their diagnosis and treatment plan and make sense when they do. No, physicians don’t like that. They would rather not have to tell you anything. If they do have to explain something, they expect you to take what they say on faith even if it contradicts other credible sources of information or just plain doesn’t make sense.

But when it’s your life or family member’s life that is at stake, you better think back to this report from Saint Francis Hospital-Memphis (and many, many others like it) and ask yourself a few very simple questions:

If doctors in general really had my best interests at heart, why would they use the power of government to deny my access to the latest life-saving technology?

If doctors in general weren’t more interested in making money than in saving patients, why would knowingly and willing provide misinformation to government agencies in order to further their financial interests?

And if doctors are willing to lie to government agencies in order to protect their financial interests at the expense of both the truth and patients’ access to the best available life-saving technologies, why would they have any problem lying to me?