Talk:Iatrogenesis

Bear in mind
That doctors in 'the old days' did far more that killed patients than now - and sometimes 'the local wise/cunning person' (or even 'the local horse, sheep, and cow curer') could actually do as well or even better than the doctors (given the state of medical knowledge at the time).

Even allowing for 'overtly experimental medicines and medical practices' in the current state of medical knowledge (where the known and unknown unknowns are being analysed) it is probably impossible to entirely eliminate iatrogenesis (if you have been healthy so far and a particular inherent issue has not been 'set off', and/or never encountered substance X to which there is a 0.01% severe response then there may be no reason to assume that you will react in a given situation). The point should be that for every thalidomide event (where the issue was with one of the versions of the compound which was included in the marketed product but not in the tests) the medical (pharmaceutical etc) profession should learn for the next time so that certain known potential problems are checked for. Anna Livia (talk) 12:18, 14 November 2017 (UTC)