Critique of A Critique
Earlier today I received a link from Gina Garver to a post from a Dr. Jennifer Gunter. Dr. Gunter’s post was a critique of a letter written by Donald Trump’s personal physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, presumably at Mr. Trump’s request, attesting to his fitness and overall health.
Please go the huffingtonpost.com for the original letter. What follows is my “critique of her critique”, so to speak:
Dear Gina,
As you know, I am ALSO a Doctor of Medicine and I do not find Dr. Gunter’s critique of Dr. Bornstein’s letter persuasive. Simple things she mentions, like the “To My Concern” salutation rather than the normal “To Whom It May Concern” sounds to me like a Spell Checker problem that busy doctors often are plagued with when sending many reports and communications over the course of a long day. I’m afraid occasional errors of this nature have occurred from time to time in my communications, which I regret, but do not generally go to confession for. Next, a physician might justifiably choose to summarize numerous lab results with a single descriptor rather than list each individual result as Dr. Gunter wrongly suggests is de rigueur. Further more, some doctors might choose positive and negative appellations more in the way a layman would interpret them rather than the traditional medical usage (where, for example, a “positive result” is BAD!) because, remember, the letter is intended for a non medical readership. Next, many physicians, (usually, in my experience, older physicians) often refer to test results as “test scores” (which Dr. Gunter, for some reason, finds VERY puzzling!) rather than “test results” or “test values” which would be the more modern terms. Nothing of consequence to that. Further, regarding the included email address: it may have been included because this letter, unlike many doctor communications, is meant for public consumption. Trump may have even given permission to Dr. Bornstein to answer queries. Trump’s intention was, of course, to make this information public, so HIPPA and privacy concerns here should NOT be an issue. Next, Dr. Gunter frets about Dr. Bornstein’s expressed surprise that Mr. Trump’s medical parameters were normal. Now it is true that normal parameters in a 20 year old wouldn’t be remarkable or surprising, but to have universally normal parameters (including normal to low blood pressure, with no antihypertensives on board) in a 70 year old individual IS a bit surprising, JUST as Dr. Bornstein said. In summary, I find Dr. Gunter’s remarks to be ill considered and misleading. I wonder what Dr. Gunter would say about the format of Hillary Clinton’s medical records???….Oh, right!!!….There ARE no Hillary Clinton medical records!!! Fancy that!!!