Two good organizations to know

kw: medicine, medical studies, watchdog groups

Just a quick note of support for two groups that are addressing problems in the field of medicine that should have been the province of AMA or a similar organization, but are ignored by them.

Firstly, a general-purpose organization is the Cochrane Collaboration, whose "About Us" page states

The Cochrane Collaboration, established in 1993, is an international network of people helping health care providers, policy makers, patients, their advocates and carers, make well-informed decisions about human health care by preparing, updating and promoting the accessibility of Cochrane Reviews – over 4,500 so far, published online in The Cochrane Library.

Considering that only about half of common treatments are known to be effective, they are doing the heavy lifting we all depend on.

Secondly, a narrowly-focused organization, Truth in Medicine, deals primarily with the use of "surgical mesh", which is a lot like the stuff that makes up a bag you buy onions in. Its use in the human body is found to cause harm and do little good, yet many surgeons still promote it. The mission statement of TiM reads

Truth in Medicine Incorporated is a patient advocacy organization which educates the public about the potential risks and complications from the implantation of synthetic surgical mesh into the human body.

The organization also educates and supports patients who have already been harmed by surgical implantation of synthetic mesh.

I have not gone so far as to donate to either organization yet, but I will continue to study them, and I do not rule it out.