What is the Origin of Strategic Negligence?

This concept is imported from high-level risk management, applied here to the nuanced practice of endocrinology where over-correction can be detrimental. It acknowledges that laboratory values alone do not always dictate the optimal therapeutic path for complex regulatory systems.

What is the Mechanism of Strategic Negligence?

The mechanism involves weighing the known stability of the patient’s current neuroendocrine rhythms against the potential for introducing a new instability through exogenous intervention, such as introducing replacement hormones. In essence, the clinician recognizes that maintaining the existing, albeit imperfect, state is superior to risking a greater deviation through poorly timed or excessive treatment application.

Strategic Negligence ∞ Area

Strategic Negligence

Meaning

Strategic Negligence is the deliberate clinical choice to withhold aggressive intervention on a physiological marker that falls slightly outside a reference range, based on a sophisticated assessment that aggressive titration would risk disrupting the established functional equilibrium. This requires deep clinical judgment concerning the potential iatrogenic harm versus the minimal deviation from the biological setpoint. It is calculated inaction.