Informed Consent:
The physician and surgeon should discuss the risks and benefits of the use of controlled substances and other treatment modalities with the patient, caregiver or guardian.

www.medbd.ca.gov/consumerguidelines.htm

Precisely BECAUSE the doctor might not give two shits about the patient, he MUST be required to meet certain OBJECTIVE (measureable) standards. Objectivity may seem clinical, cold (insert your own adjective). But touchy-feely subjective assessments are camouflage for the scoundrel.

This doesn't mean there is no reason to gather the subjective impressions of ETS patients. Far from it. Asking periodic follow-up questions of patients is where the subjective meets the objective.

For example, if I say I'm dissatisfied with the results of my surgery, that is my subjective view. But if a study shows that, after 2 years, 27% of ETS patients say they are dissatisfied, that is an objective fact.

I haven't even seen this kind of study. It would be interesting to learn if the subjective satisfaction rate falls over time. I'll bet it does. A lot of the pro-ETS studies I've seen simply define 'effective' as 'stopping hand sweat' and then correctly claim 100% success. I suppose they define 'safe' as 'patient can still walk and talk'.

Of course the data mentioned by CSMESS should be gathered. In fact, mostly it has been gathered (a clue as to why many ETS docs shy away from such objective testing of their own patients??).

Maybe we could break the measurements into 3 categories: expensive, moderate, and dirt-cheap, no-brainer.

In the dirt-cheap, no-brainer category would be resting heart rate and blood pressure. Measuring resting heart rate requires a finger and a wristwatch for godsake.

In the expensive category would be PET scans of autonomic function, such as the ones I'm going to have in a few weeks.

Much of the other data might go in the moderate category, requiring a bit more effort and expense than taking blood pressure, but far from the rocket science of nuclear medicine.

Bare minimum: Every ETS patient should be told about possible changes to heart rate, thermoregulation, sweating, anhidrosis, and energy level. They should also get an explanation as to how these changes might apply to their real life in the real world, such as not being able to tolerate outdoor activity in the summer.

I propose that we create a definition of informed consent for ETS, and then present it to 'them'.