LAUSR

A s a young man who grew up in the inner city of Detroit, Michigan, Otis W. Brawley, MD, was given words of advice that have guided him throughout his life and career as a medical oncologist and epidemiologist: You should label everything according to the things you know, the things you do not know, and the things you believe, and question everything, but question what you know more than anything else. The words came from a Jesuit priest at the Detroit high school that Dr Brawley attended. While in high school, Dr Brawley had been urged by the priest to pursue an undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago. A few years later, the priest heard that Dr Brawley had chosen to pursue medicine while in Chicago and called with the advice. The priest then added, “By the way, doctors have a horrible habit of confusing what they believe with what they know.”