With Treatment, Less May Be More

As environmental regulators look more and more to scientific experts to devise treatments for contaminated sites, it might behoove those regulators to consider the import a a recent medical study which dramatically suggests that problems may not always be best addressed by the application of aggressive treatments devised by experts.  That study evaluated mortality rates among cardiac patients hospitalized during the period when national cardiology conventions were being held.  Stunningly, cardiac patients fared significantly better if they were hospitalized when cardiologists were away at national conferences.  Indeed, almost 30 percent fewer patients hospitalized for heart failure died when their cardiologists were at professional conferences than when those cardiologists were at the hospital (17.5% v. 24.8% mortality).   Additionally, those patients were subjected to fewer aggressive treatments, during the period when their cardiologists were attending national