Reply #28: Innovation

[Orrex]

So the argument of the original poster that things that have been shown to work are incorporated into conventional medicine are just wrong--no, not generally unless a pharmaceutical rep visits them with a newly approved drug.

Yeah, that's why doctors are still using techniques developed before World War II. Those pesky medicos won't even wipe their assess unless a rep from Big Pharma tells them to.

The OP wasn't claiming that every doctor incorporate every latest advance. That would be stupid and foolhardy, whether you're talking about a specialist or a general practitioner. Instead, the OP's point was that medicine that has been scientifically shown to work isn't alternative at all. That's true even if your local urologist doesn't have the latest robotic assistant for cardiac surgery; the methods and findings are consistent with actual medicine and are therefore part of actual medicine.