March Madness and medicine

If you have a medical problem, or something is bothering you or a member of your family, The Jackson County Times now has a local physician, Dr. John Spence, of the Panhandle Family Care Associates available to respond to your questions via e-mail.


Anyone who knows me intimately, and many of those who don’t, are aware that I am a basketball junkie. I have followed college hoops for longer than I can remember and have been a fan of the Duke Blue Devils for longer than that. March Madness marks the one time of year in my life where everything else takes a back-seat. Akin to a religious zealot, I watch games with a frenzied passion rivaled only by the face-painted lunacy of the Cameron Crazies. As the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball has come to a close, one thing is certain. Uncertainty. Witness the ascension of teams like St.Mary’s, Cornell, and Northern Iowa to the Sweet 16. There is predictability in the unpredictability of the tournament. An astute reader at this point (perhaps bored to tears) may ask, what does this have to with medicine. You are a physician, not a sports journalist!


The comparisons between March Madness and medicine are blatantly obvious and unnerving. Regardless of what we think it going on with a patient, regardless of what a lab may tell us – there is always a degree of inherent uncertainty that exists in medicine. The ever changing medical landscape never ceases to amaze me. For example, a recent journal article suggested that vitamin D supplementation may actually be DETRIMENTAL as it may cause increased calcium deposits in blood vessels. The same journal reported that lowering blood sugars in diabetics to less than 165 on average resulted in increased mortality. This was a reputable journal, by the way, not just some wayward information I pulled off wikipedia. This is counterintuitive to everything we recognize to be true! Is there any validity to these studies? Only time will tell.

A professor and mentor of mine once stated that 50% of what he had learned in medical school and residency was obsolete only 15 years later. Now, I hold him in high regard as a scholar, and it has nothing to do with the fact he graduated from Duke University School of Medicine. His jump shot may be horrific, but he knows medicine. This is a scary proposition – perhaps a large part of what we are doing academically is flawed. I can relate the stories of dozens and dozens of patients who either defied the odds, beat the statistics, or had remarkable, miraculous recoveries where none were expected. What does this tell me? There is always uncertainty. This is certain. Sound familiar?

There is predictability in the unpredictability of life, medicine and the NCAA basketball tourney. In medicine, we use trends, clinical experience, education, and clinical research to dictate our treatment plans. Sometimes we “go with our gut”. We generally do a good job, but there is always that potential margin of error that must be accounted for. The same is true in hoops. I don’t care how many games you watch, how many statistics you analyze or how much of an inside scoop you think you may have.

No one in their right mind could have predicted that Northern Iowa would beat Kansas. If you did, there are only one of two explanations. You know nothing about college hoops or you live in Northern Iowa. Which is why I picked Kansas!

Do you have any medical questions or concerns that you would like addresses? You can contact Dr. Spence by email at panhandledailydose@hotmail.com or by mailing your question to Daily Dose, P.O. Box 6107, Marianna, FL 32446.