Why I don’t Give Financial Advice to our Accountant

I don’t argue with our accountant about taxes and if I needed a lawyer, I wouldn’t try to circumvent his or her recommendations. I don’t offer my perspective to engineers who design buildings or bridges, because no amount of online learning I do will take the place of their years of hands-on training and mentored practice. 

I don’t “do my own research” in the fields of engineering, architecture, law, accounting, computer science, or finance because I don’t have six to eight years to spend learning each of these subjects thoroughly. Instead, I choose experts in these fields whose character and training I trust to offer me the best advice. After receiving their wisdom (typically at a cost), I don’t go rogue and try to make up a better solution based on my limited experience or feelings. 

Medical professionals are weary. I see the emotional exhaustion and impending burnout in colleagues who lament the suspicion and even vitriol we are given daily in return for the many years we and our families have invested and continue to invest in learning the science and art of healing. Why has distrust and adversarial challenge of physicians been normalized? My classmates in medical school are brilliant, hardworking empaths who could have made more money with less stress in other fields. Is it fair to assume we are all either willfully ignorant or part of Ponzi schemes meant to bankrupt/kill the people we have studied (and continue to study) much of our lives to serve? 

The average, educated adult has little or no training in assessing and applying clinical research, the cornerstone of modern medicine. The inability to differentiate a cohort study from a case-control study with associated relative risks and odds ratios should be a bare minimum in trying to override expert consensus. Yes, recommendations change. Science, like technology, evolves as we get better at answering age-old questions. Populations around the world are now living longer, fuller lives than ever in history — in large part due to advances in public health and medical/surgical interventions. Physicians are happy to walk through the current body of evidence with any person (patient or not) who has sincere questions. Unlike other professions, often we don’t even charge for this service. Why? Because we do our best to become all things to all people so that more can be well, by whatever means possible.

#physiciandistrust #physicianburnout #empathcareers #weknowinpart #moralinjury