Merchant and doctor

Chapter 1897 Medical Blindness
When dealing with a big name in the field of traditional Chinese medicine like Bian Mu, "Striped Face" always kept a certain distance. There were some things he would never say unless Bian Mu brought them up himself.

While silently drinking his porridge over the fire, "Striped Face" had no intention of finding out what trouble Fan Sanqiao had gotten into.

"It was Brother Qiao on the phone. He said a relative of his family injured their knee and asked if they needed surgery," Bian Mu casually mentioned while continuing to drink her porridge.

"I overheard a few words just now, that whether or not surgery is needed for the same type of bone injury varies from person to person?!" Putting down his chopsticks, "Striped Face" asked curiously.

“That’s absolutely right! The path of medicine is actually quite profound. What Brother Qiao said wasn’t accurate. His relative actually injured his femur, but the specific location was very close to the knee. The femur is the thigh bone, also known as the hamstring, which is the longest tubular bone in the human body. The upper end, with the femoral head and acetabulum, forms the hip joint, and the lower part, together with the patella and tibia, forms the knee joint. It usually bears a considerable portion of the body weight. That’s why people say you can’t be too fat. Being overweight has a much greater negative impact on bones than people imagine!” Bian Mu explained with a smile.

"So, the focus of treatment is actually on the femoral head, not the so-called knee?!" The "sharp-faced" man's mind was quick.

Upon hearing this, Bian Mu's face showed a rather approving expression.

"I'm not just flattering you! Many highly professional orthopedic surgeons don't even have your quick thinking when it comes to clinical matters!"

"No way! You're joking!" "Striped Face" didn't believe it at all, taking it as Bian Mu joking!
"Really! Hey! Just chatting! What's your understanding of illiteracy these days? I mean from the perspective of the new era and new concepts." Suddenly, Bian Mu brought up the concept of "illiteracy."

"Illiterate?! Not very literate, right? I think I've read that somewhere before, knowing no more than 1500 characters? Or something like that, not reaching a certain level of reading ability, and what... right, is it that the brain can't organize effective thinking with complex logical levels?!"

“Sure! If we just randomly stopped a few people on the street and asked them this question, most of them would give vague answers. At least they don’t really understand the concept of 1500 words. Impressive!” Bian Mu replied with a smile.

"Don't laugh at me. So... what exactly is the concept of illiteracy in the new concept?" "Knife-faced" had finished eating and, while tidying up his utensils, asked with a smile.

“This is my opinion,” Bian Mu explained with a smile. “So-called illiteracy is the inability to establish one’s own place in the present era, to be ignorant, insensitive, unintentional, and irresponsible towards a particular time. In short, who am I? Where am I? What is my place in the era—relatively fixed or adrift? What obligations and responsibilities do I have to this era?! If someone can’t do these things, they can be called illiterate. Of course, to understand these questions, being illiterate is definitely not an option. We were having a good chat, so why are we talking about this? Well, where there is illiteracy, there is also medical illiteracy, and our focus is on medical illiteracy.” Hearing this, the “striped-faced” man’s expression gradually calmed down. He knew that he might benefit greatly from what Master Bian had discussed today!
"The term 'medical illiterate' refers to those qualified medical professionals who are unaware of their own limitations, such as orthopedic surgeons. These surgeons are graduates of reputable medical schools, possessing formal training and basic professional skills. If they are careful enough, they may not cause any medical malpractice issues until retirement. However, some orthopedic surgeons never understand their own skill level in a particular hospital, region, or even nationally. They don't know what kind of orthopedic cases they can handle independently, when they need assistance, the general skill level of their superior orthopedic colleagues, or their future career path. They wonder if they can ever reach that level in their lifetime… and so on." Almost every one of them had a fleeting thought: some orthopedic surgeons, even after retiring, still couldn't establish their professional coordinates. Among their many colleagues, where did they stand? Which cases could they handle completely, and which required consulting others? Who should they consult? Which cases were completely beyond their control? Should they advise the patient to change appointments? Or go to another hospital? Which level? Who should they contact? They had never really had any idea. Although there weren't many of these colleagues, they certainly existed. I often referred to them as "medical illiterates" in private. It was a bit unfortunate that Brother Qiao's relative had a bad time, falling into the hands of a few medical illiterates at a crucial moment..." At this point, Bian Mu felt his throat getting dry, stopped talking, and got up to get another bowl of porridge from the bar.

"Now that you mention it, it seems that similar phenomena exist in all walks of life, right?" the "striped-faced man" said with a smile.

“I can’t just spout off. At least, the more I see in orthopedics, the clearer things become. Take Qiao’s relative, for example. It’s clearly femoral stress linkage syndrome, but the real source of the injury is at the end of the femur. Whether the knee can be saved depends on the femoral injury, not the knee itself. However… to reach a similar conclusion, an orthopedic doctor needs to be proficient in skeletal kinematics and bone stress statistics. Without technical support from relevant research institutions, he or she also needs to understand some digital modeling technology. At the very least, he or she needs to understand stress equations, and truly understand them. They also need to be proficient in stress functions. Otherwise, how can stress test models be built?! So… in conclusion, foreigners can be quite medically illiterate sometimes. Qiao didn’t think about it seriously and directly concluded it was a knee problem. This is where the disagreement arises about whether to have surgery or choose conservative treatment.” While explaining, Bian Mu took out a black ballpoint pen and drew two diagrams on two napkins.

"My God! It's so complicated?!"

"Of course! You remember, right? Brother Qiao was a genuine participant in the 'Digital Medicine' project. In fact, he was one of the founders of the 'Digital Medicine' project. Even if he wasn't interested in traditional Chinese medicine and spent all his time in front of the computer, he still knew a little about bone stress. So here's the thing: he's seen it all, so it's not hard to imagine how complicated this matter is!"

"Oh my! Only a genius like you could figure this out. If it were me, I would have blown up by now! Seriously, after hearing what you said, there must be quite a few people who are medically illiterate. The technical threshold is set way too high!" "Striped Face" chimed in with a few words of agreement.

"That's why I suggest that the other party go abroad to have the surgery. The technology and equipment there should be more advanced, and the surgery should be extremely precise. This will also alleviate part of the stress support problem. As for whether the old disease will recur in the future, we can only leave it to fate."

"No wonder... What if you insist on choosing conservative treatment?" "Striped Face" asked curiously.

"Starting from this month, in about a year, the patient's knee will be ruined and he will have to undergo joint replacement surgery. In addition, the stress environment of the femur will be completely destroyed. With all the major and minor surgeries combined, it is estimated that at least five surgeries will be needed to ensure that the patient can walk normally after the surgery to the greatest extent possible."

"Oh my! That's really tragic! So... why was Brother Qiao allowed to choose conservative treatment?"

Hearing this, Bian Mu smiled without saying a word, picked up the bowl and drank a few more mouthfuls of thin porridge.