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第三十四篇 Do Patients Trust Doctors Too Much? Earlier this year, the American College of Surgeons, the national scientific and educational organization of surgeons, conducted a nationwide survey that found that the average patient devotes an hour or less to researching his or her surgery or less to researching his surgery or surgeon. While prospective patients worry about the costs or complications of an operation, they dont necessarily look for information that would address their concerns. In fact, more than a third of patients who had an operation in the last five years never reviewed the credentials of the surgeon who operated. Patients are more likely to spend time researching a job change or a new car than the operation they are about to submit to or the surgeon who wields the knife. And many patients are satisfied with the answers they receive from their surgeon or primary care doctor, whoever those individuals happen to me. I felt curious about the survey, so I called Dr. Thomas Russell, executive director of the American College of Surgeons. There is a tendency for patients not to get particularly involved and not to feel compelled to look into their surgery or surgeons, he told me. There are consequences to that kind of blind trust. Today, medicine and surgery are really team sports, Dr. Russell continued, and the patient, as the ultimate decision maker, is the most important member of the team. Mistakes can happiness and parents have to be educated and must understand what is going on. | 
