I pretty much agree with your points. But this is not what we see in reality today.
I believe that part of today's problem is knowledge, interest and incentives.
- About 40% of patients (in general) do not care enough about their health and delegate all decision making to the doctor.
- I am simplifying here: If you ask a surgeon about the best therapy for your cancer, the answer will most likely be surgery. If the same patient would ask a radiologist, the answer will most likely be radiation. Which we might attribute to people more likely to believe in their own line of work. But in reality this might be more influenced by doctors being financially driven by their administrators to maximize patient throughput.
Fortunately these decisions are usually not done by the individual surgeon or radiologist but by a cross-disciplinary team during rounds and by input from wide long-term studies categorising the tumor type, treatment options and outcome.
I believe that part of today's problem is knowledge, interest and incentives.
- About 40% of patients (in general) do not care enough about their health and delegate all decision making to the doctor.
- I am simplifying here: If you ask a surgeon about the best therapy for your cancer, the answer will most likely be surgery. If the same patient would ask a radiologist, the answer will most likely be radiation. Which we might attribute to people more likely to believe in their own line of work. But in reality this might be more influenced by doctors being financially driven by their administrators to maximize patient throughput.