It’s pretty rare to see an organization take responsibility and own up to its mistakes these days, which makes this latest bit of news so refreshing: The American Medical Association has apologized for still not having a more legitimate-looking alternative to pushing on your tongue with a wood stick.
It looks like the AMA is honest enough to own up to its shortcomings.
“That the AMA has somehow made it to the year 2018 and still not come up with a more sophisticated diagnostic procedure than sticking a wooden stick into a patient’s mouth like some kind of prairie doctor from the 1800s is shameful and not at all in line with our mission to advance medical technology and the public health,” said AMA representative Dr. Paul Chen in a press statement earlier today. “Jamming a popsicle stick into someone’s mouth and making them say ‘ahhh’ is something you’d expect to see in an old Donald Duck cartoon and we sincerely apologize that the medical field has failed to innovate something better by now.”
The AMA’s statement goes on to express remorse that doctors have not yet developed some type of expensive machine to check patients’ throats that plugs into the wall and has lights on it and a few buttons that would communicate professionalism and competence. Needless to say, the fact that the American Medical Association is willing to admit that it can do better is awesome and much needed in today’s culture. Hopefully medical researchers can invent a throat test that looks like actual science sometime soon!
