The Joel Bieber Firm

     The other night, I watched the national  Evening News. Normally, I’m either not home,  or my wife and I are eating without the TV  turned on;  Or, My wife and I are eating dinner with Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. What that really means is that we are watching a  version of “Pardon the Interruption”,  ”DVR’d” from ESPN. 

     Watching the national Evening News is surprising, during the advertising breaks. It seems like the commercials are endless ads for some kind of medication. I guess they believe in the proposition that if Big Pharma tells us about a problem, then they have  a pill to fix it.

     There might be an advertisment that deals with poor sleeping habits. Then, they tell you how they can fix that, to make you feel like a butterfly is floating past you. Do we really want butterflies hanging around our pillows?

     The next ad might have something to do with “jumpy legs”. Or, a guy has heart or cholesterol problems and he is always in black and white, until he takes one of these amazing pills and life is back in color again…. riding a bike with family.

     They always have the depression ads. The person with furrowed brow is magically out in the garden or smiling at the world, after taking that special medication. Maybe there’s depression after learning that you have to take a pill for jumpy legs, so you can have butterflies zipping around the bedroom, while you sleep with that satisfied look of “making sure that you have 8 hours to sleep”  when you take the pill.

     In my practice, I regularly rely on what doctors say or put in their notes. The standard for evidence is “more probable than not”.  The Hippocratic oath includes the words “First, do no harm”. For that reason, you would think that doctors would want to be advocates for their patients in testimony and in the medical records.

     Some doctors will come right out and say that they don’t want to be involved in an accident case. In fact, they will charge such an exorbitant amount to meet, have their deposition taken or even come to court, that it sometimes becomes financially prohibitive. They seem to forget that the client has to ultimately pay for their testimony. 

     At a recent seminar, a jury psychologist was saying that nurses are now considered to be much more credible and reliable than doctors. Because of these surveys, they were encouraging us to call nurses to testify in our cases.

     I guess the summary of all these “ask your doctor” ads  has led me to believe that the public might see these ads and starts linking Big Pharma with doctors. If you start to believe that doctors are in the pocket of Big Business, no wonder we begin to believe in the nursing profession as more dependable.

     Personally, I’m glad that I have doctors that I can depend on. In fact, I never feel as though I have to ask them about a prescription that I just saw on TV. Maybe that is a good test as to whether you are already receiving good medical care. I don’t have to walk in with some  prescription name, written down on a piece of paper, to ask my doctor whether it’s right for me.  Otherwise, maybe the ads should say, “Ask your nurse if your doctor is right for you”.

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