The "dangers of cybernetic medicine-a dermatologist's warning"

Confining the actions of physicians to iron-clad directions and blind following of rules and regulations is creating many problems. Not to err does not mean to be right. Overall supervision of medical research and practice is a must for society; yet, minute regulations become a major obstacle for good practice and progress. Medicine is about patients and physicians. Pre-established rules and directives are only tools, not ends in themselves. Societies or institutions that become rigid and inefficient tend to be wiped out when unexpected situations or enemies appear. As a result, the stereotyped measures are not sufficiently effective. The deterioration of the Roman empire, and of its formidable army, is used as an historical example of the viewpoint proposed by the author. The analysis presented here applies to dermatology in particular, but also, and very acutely, to medicine in general.