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Interesting article on health care and tech


Reverend_Maynard

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Actually, a smart diagnostic program has been available for years.

Docs didn't like it.

This is about bypassing Docs by having your own smart program. I'm a big fan of AI, although this won't be AI, it still has the potential to be pretty fucking awesome.

It's already started. You can get a thing that will tell your smartphone if you are having a heart attack. Then there is the Libre, which gives you constant real time blood sugar information.

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I like AI as a backup or a screen, but not as a primary source of diagnosis or prescribed recovery.

As far as shortages of doctors go, note that the American Medical Association is fine with limiting the number of seats in American Medical Schools - there are fewer every year. Consequently we have one doctor for every 1200 people - many of them trained in 3rd world countries - while France has one doctor for every 440 people - most of them French.  We have better undergrad colleges than France, yet France produces doctors at three times the rate we do.  It's similar in Japan and other countries. That's a rigged system in the USA!

Additionally, doctors deserve higher salaries but they are astronomical compared with other nations - and limiting medical students is a big reason why.

The thing I worry about AI is that it will be a "by the book" program and I've seen that happen to me by Diabetes Specialists and Dietitians where they won't consider things that work that are not on their approved lists.  One dietitian in the U. of MD Hospital program I took part in said, similar to the South Beach Diet philosophy, "First, stop doing it. Then, add it back in gradually and see what effect it has on your sugar levels."  She was the ONLY one who did that and some foods that are high in carbs but low or medium in
"GI Index" (how fast those carbs move into your bloodstread), like pasta and bread and some pit fruits, worked for me but some of the expert idiots still told me not to eat them because "it's in the book."

Finally, the Newsweek's articles claim of greatly reducing diabetes seems to me to be extraordinarily naive.  As long as McD's keeps enlarging it meal sizes, other restaurants serve appetizers as big as a regular meal and the main dish almost always requires a doggie bag, we're not going to see a decrease in obesity, especially as exercise becomes ever less of the avg. person's activities.

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I could see it used for of an annual checkup.  Go to an office, stick your arm in a cuff and get a blood pressure and heart rate check, piss in a bottle, poop in a box and bleed into a vile then have robots check it all out.  If you're fine then you get to go.  If there is a problem then the doctor comes in to talk it out with you.

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3 hours ago, bikeman564™ said:

Agreed. They should be paid a lot more. It pisses me off that athletes who make mutli-millions per year for what? To hit a ball w/ a bat?:wacko:

I gotta disagree on this one. Doctors can quite often make what they are "worth".  My uncle is a surgeon and a multi-millionaire. Completely justified that he is worth millions.  But he is far far far from rare in the medical field.  He will have even more money when he retires this year and sells his practice.  The bigger problem we face is more along the lines of Mick's "shortage" observations, and then the "specialty" and GP shortages as well.  We'd probably be really well served by freely educating any qualified person to become a doctor, but that would 1) require socialism of a sort, and 2) require more doctor training slots at colleges.

And onto the athletes vs doctors comparison, why is that even an issue?  Athletes certainly can make a big chunk of change, but how many athletes in the US make over a million a year? A thousand? 500? It's sort of a small group, and directly tied to their ability to drive revenue to their sport.  If the MLB gets a multi-billion dollar TV contract, it's either the owners (who don't hit a ball with a bat), the players (who actually draw the crowds/do the work), or a mixture of the two that get the billions. What's wrong with the athletes getting paid?

image.thumb.png.10b62b308f17839179a0e1f292551f85.png

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2 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

And onto the athletes vs doctors comparison, why is that even an issue?  Athletes certainly can make a big chunk of change, but how many athletes in the US make over a million a year? A thousand? 500? It's sort of a small group, and directly tied to their ability to drive revenue to their sport.  If the MLB gets a multi-billion dollar TV contract, it's either the owners (who don't hit a ball with a bat), the players (who actually draw the crowds/do the work), or a mixture of the two that get the billions. What's wrong with the athletes getting paid?

 

worth IMO. Someone who plays baseball is not worth shit. Someone who saves a life...worth shit. Got it? The world can be w/o sports athletes.

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What we need are GPs.

But the big bucks are in specialties, so that's where they go.

One option is to offer generous funding for poor kids that want to be Docs with a contractual obligation that they work as a GP for a decade.

Of course, you'd have to break the death grip Docs have, to get a lot more students.

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6 minutes ago, bikeman564™ said:

worth IMO. Someone who plays baseball is not worth shit. Someone who saves a life...worth shit. Got it? The world can be w/o sports athletes.

I get the "I can't believe that athletes are paid so much" angst, but you only have to look here in the Cafe to see the ratio of sports discussions to medical discussions.  Folks LOVE sports.  From curling to hockey to football to baseball to cycling to skiing.  Folks PAY to watch and play sports - billions and billions of dollars. Folks are all in on "teams" and specific athletes.  Folks decorate their homes. Folks schedule their days, weekends, vacations, and even weddings around sports.  It's BIG DOLLAR. 

There is no "If athletes make millions, doctors CAN'T make millions" clause.  There is a "both doctors and athletes can make millions" possibility.  Again, I don't see 1) the comparison between the two jobs, nor 2) the reality that doctors don't make a good living (if they choose to go for the money).

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18 hours ago, bikeman564™ said:

worth IMO. Someone who plays baseball is not worth shit. Someone who saves a life...worth shit. Got it? The world can be w/o sports athletes.

Professional sports are how our society pays reparations. Latin Americans have gotten rich off baseball. African Americans have gotten rich off Football and Basketball. Chinese Americans have gotten rich off table tennis. Win win for everyone. 

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18 minutes ago, BuffJim said:

Professional sports are how our society pays reparations. Latin Americans have gotten rich off baseball. African Americans have gotten rich off Football and Basketball. Chinese Americans have gotten rich off table tennis. Win win for everyone. 

But since someone has to be Debbie downer, here goes:
 

“Twue, but it has greatly boosted income inequality.“ 

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