Well--my doctor pointed out, when I asked him about a the justification for a certain set of procedures, pointed out that most procedures had not been subjected to this sort of testing--

Of course, in the US, the drug AZT and the therapies associated with it were introduced without testing--this was more extreme than usual, but, many drugs are introduced that have not had full double blind tests done for all the suggested uses--

Even if it is currently necessary for double-blind tests to be done for new therapies and procedures to be used in standard practice, it is not necessarily true that every procedure is used in standard practice has been subjected to that same testing, and I believe that this is what my doctor was talking about--

At any rate, standards vary from one country to the next--in the States, medical care is very expensive, and, although we are continually told that our health care system is the best in the world, most of us have rather tragic stories to tell about mistakes, sloppy diagnoses, and other sorts of medical negligence--there are many cases where doctors have continued to use outmoded, dangerous, treatments, when newer, safer procedures have long been common practice--