Comment by rscho

Medicine isn't science because science is not as advanced as many would think. The lack of workplace integration is also a big factor.

I don't think we discourage second opinions, except maybe in some for-profit structures. The bad idea is to have multiple people making decisions in parallel. I'm not in the US, though.

Regarding advocacy, I don't think it's so crazy. It's very good to have a valid interlocutor when the patient is diminished. Also, hospitals are big systems with limited personalization. If someone's there to call out the system when it's trying to shoehorn too hard, it's also very good.