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To investigate causes of and a natural progressions of disease and dis-ease so that medicine can be more appropriately applied in accord with Nature's Laws, the law of physics, chemistry, biology, and the laws of healing.  

What are these natural laws of medicine?  How can we teach these laws to all physicians?  How to apply Logic and Critical Thinking skills to improve public health policy and inform policy? 

Iatrogenicity: any intentional or unintended, immediate or postponed, yet preventable or avoidable harm to the human body or mind by an either action or inaction (e.g. failure to prevent) of the medical caregiver (i.e., nurse, physician) resulting in discomfort, injury, disability, or death. 

Iatrogenicity is harm caused by a physician’s diagnosis and treatment, although it does not imply an improper act by the physician. The harm may occur in any interaction of patients with health professionals, ranging from preventive interventions, lifestyle advice, and diagnostic procedures to major surgery. An adverse iatrogenic outcome may occur despite all appropriate interventions. Even the best medicine can have unintentional effects.  

Let this book serve as the beginning of an effort to remediate the current situation while remembering that if you have medicine, you should not undermine Iatrogenicity; it cannot be avoided but could and should be mitigated and managed. 

The reader is reminded that the goal of medicine is to restore “wholeness” which can include reducing the suffering of iatrogenic consequences and diseases. This takes into account one of the foremost principles of medicine, primum non nocere, which is more accurately translated as, “to do good or to do no harm.” 

This is the first Medical Textbook devoted to the study of iatrogenicity. Published by Rutgers Press, 2017.  

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.36019/9780813586434-003/html?lang=en

Citation:  Gussak, Maria L., Gussak, Ihor B., Kostis, John B. and Kostis, William J.. "CHAPTER 1. Iatrogenicity: Definition, History, and Modern Context". Iatrogenicity: Causes and Consequences of Iatrogenesis in Cardiovascular Medicine, edited by Ihor B. Gussak, John B. Kostis, Ibrahim Akin, Martin Borggrefe, Giovanni Campanile, Arshad Jahangir, William J Kostis and Gan-Xin Yan, Ithaca, NY: Rutgers University Press, 2017, pp. 5-15. https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813586434-003 

 Medicalization

• A concerning phenomenon of “medicalization” is that there are no healthy individuals, rather, there are “undiagnosed patients”.
• An (often erroneous) social tendency (or process) of considering human conditions, behavior, or problems as being an abnormal condition or disorder requiring medical attention
• When the primary motive is not to restore health and wholeness, profit-motivated decisions can potentially increase unintended and avoidable consequences

 Iatrogenic Poverty

• The cycle described by Meessen et al. is all too familiar: “distress caused by disease, the quest for treatment – often through a succession of ineffective therapies, consumption of savings, indebtedness, sale of productive assets and eventually poverty” 
• The widening inequality gap further detriments health care.
• This is evidenced in the fact that the U.S. is the richest country with the largest health care budget in the world yet ranks 35th in life expectancy, on par with low or middle income nations.

The Mytavin calculator helps inform users of potential nutrient deficiencies. Please not disclaimer.  

The best doctor is also a philosopher and interests them/his/herself in honing logic and critical thinking skills.