What is the impact of politicization on medicine?

From the Guidelines

Politicizing medicine is harmful to public health and should be avoided, as it can lead to medical decisions being influenced by partisan interests rather than what's best for patients, ultimately affecting morbidity, mortality, and quality of life. Medicine should be guided by scientific evidence rather than political ideology. When healthcare becomes politicized, it can interfere with effective healthcare delivery, as seen in issues like vaccine hesitancy, reproductive healthcare, and pandemic responses, where political divisions have hindered public health efforts 1. Healthcare professionals should strive to maintain scientific integrity by basing recommendations on peer-reviewed research and clinical expertise, such as the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, and Sustainment (EPIS) framework, which can be optimized to examine policy's role in dissemination and implementation efforts 1.

Key Considerations

• Patients deserve medical advice that prioritizes their wellbeing over political agendas, and public health officials should communicate transparently about the evidence behind medical recommendations while acknowledging uncertainties.
• Educational institutions should emphasize critical thinking skills to help future healthcare providers and the public distinguish between evidence-based medicine and politically motivated claims.
• The fields of political science and public administration have called on public health scientists to examine how policy and politics influence the delivery of health services, highlighting the need for health policy conscious theories, models, and frameworks (TMF) that consider the dynamic nature of policy, polity structures, processes, political ideologies, and policymakers 1.
• By keeping medicine focused on science rather than politics, we can ensure better health outcomes for all patients regardless of their political affiliations, which is essential for reducing morbidity, mortality, and improving quality of life.

Recommendations for Practice

• Healthcare professionals should prioritize scientific evidence and clinical expertise when making medical decisions.
• Public health officials should communicate transparently about the evidence behind medical recommendations.
• Educational institutions should emphasize critical thinking skills to help future healthcare providers and the public distinguish between evidence-based medicine and politically motivated claims.
• Researchers should optimize existing dissemination and implementation theories, models, and frameworks to examine policy's role in healthcare delivery, as recommended in the EPIS framework 1.

From the Research

Politicizing Medicine: An Examination of the Issue

• The practice of medicine has been used to promote political aims, which can be detrimental to health 2
• Political abuses of medicine can interfere with good medical practice in several ways, including:
  • Allowing health policies to be influenced by undemocratic political considerations
  • Using health services to reward or punish political supporters or opponents
  • Direct medical involvement in political acts that contradict accepted medical ethics
  • Perpetuating inequalities in health and social services through conventional medical practices
• Medical personnel have opposed the political abuse of medicine in various ways, such as:
  • Chilean doctors opposing torture
  • South African doctors opposing the abuse of health services in perpetuating apartheid
  • The growing medical movement in opposition to nuclear war

The Role of Political Advocacy in Medicine

• Some argue that political advocacy is a core professional responsibility for physicians, while others argue that it is an error to suggest this 3
• Claims that political advocacy is a professional responsibility are mistaken because:
  • Civic virtues are outside the professional realm
  • Even if civic virtues were professionally obligatory, it is unclear that civic participation is necessary for such virtue
  • The profession of medicine ought not to require any particular political stance of its members
• Mandatory professional advocacy can displace professional work and cannot substitute for it, and the medical profession should resist attempts to add advocacy to its essential professional commitments 3

Unrelated Studies

• Several studies have examined the efficacy and safety of various medications for type 2 diabetes, including pioglitazone and sitagliptin 4, 5, 6
• These studies have found that these medications can improve glycemic control and are generally well tolerated, but they do not provide evidence relevant to the topic of politicizing medicine.