As one of the "dudes" who says "push," I think what you are saying is a bit oversimplified. Ob/gyn's have the highest malpractice insurance- averaging over $130,000 a year in my state. Do you think this is because you could do it? So you finish in the top of your class in high school and college and spend most of the next decade working your ass off in med school and residency and then have loans of hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay off and we are "OVERPRICED?" The vast majority of the patients I saw at the last hospital did NOT pay for their healthcare. This makes it hard to recoup expenses. Anyways, go watch your cheap-ass TV.
I work in an ER, and people don't just go in for emergencies. They often come because we are more convenient or they figure that they won't pay and that we have to treat them. A good portion of my job is either convincing someone that they either have or don't have an emergency. And for the record, Medicaid doesn't even pay for billing. So, in other words, government health care in this regard, is not particularly well appreciated by the medical community.
It seems that we should approach singularity with some trepidation. During most of human civilization, the more technologically advanced society overran or eliminated the less advanced once. I see no reason that we should expect a higher intelligence to necessarily be a benevolent one. I'm not predicting Skynet a la Terminator, but wouldn't humans become redundant/superfluous in this future world. We would still be consuming large amounts of resources that could otherwise go to these sentient beings. I mean nuclear weapons are scary, but at least they have a button to control them.
Maybe having the police officers (not "cops" as this is considered a derogatory slang term) fill out more paperwork to make you feel more secure would make you happy after they discharge their tasers. If you want to qualify it as torture, it is something every police officer in training goes through nowadays in the US. "Excited delirium" sounds like an interesting term; qualifying a persons intent and threat can be a pretty hairy situation and I, who have also "known several cops," think its great that they don't have to use a conventional firearm to subdue them. If you really think that to safely use a stun gun someone basically needs to be within the scope of your physical control, you are incorrect. You seem to be paranoid or delusional and have a strange fear of the police. Who do you root for when the Joe Schmow hits the police officer? Your level of understanding of what they do for a living is atrocious and despicable. I am saddened that you have been rated as insightful.
Out of curosity, are you sure that the parent kept the entire population dumb. Your post seems very accusatory of the parent. And saying murder or rape is to be acceptable is beyond idiotic. As far as South Africa not thriving, are we to blame the parent for the utter failure of the whole continent. Give me a break.
As the the other poster said, he was not "subdued." As you call cops pathetic that they had trouble holding him down, I wonder what experience you have in restraining violent people. If he would have gotten loose and grabbed one of the officers guns, things could have ended up much differently. And if you think the cops are "dirt shit stupid" and the guy in custody is a reasonable man from what you see in a brief grainy video, then you sir are not a "Genius." A person that continues to fight and resist arrest presents a dangerous situation for everyone, hell, his wife called the police because of that. Maybe the police should call you as you seem to have some knowledge of how to take care of these matters.
Having not been at the trial and not knowing all the specifics, I do take issue with some of what you are saying. "problem with epilepsy medication" does not begin to explain why he was initially violent and his wife called the cops. He may have been post-ictal (state of confusion and sometimes violent behavior following a seizure.) Having been struck and seeing other hospital personnel get hurt by epileptics after their seizures when they can't be reasoned with is a dangerous situation. Not knowing the full situation of what happened, I think it would be fair to say that the number of police called in was because he was resisting arrest - I mean he appeared to be fighting to the end. "The solution is to stop, admit that we're afraid..." it trite and shows that you have no first hand experience in these situations. "We don't get to hurt or kill other people just because we're afraid" - if someone is acting in a threatening manner then I am glad that police have a rarely lethal way of subduing the person. I would gladly like to watch you lecture police on your contemplation of how they should act in these situations.
Your not-inconsiderable portion of the population is considerable - about 7%. Appendicitis does kill often if left untreated. Delay in diagnosis is the principle reason for mortality so to "chop" it off at the first sign of inflammation is usually a good idea. Spontaneous resolution of appendicitis is not something to wait for. Having a patient perforate in front of you is considered bad medicine in the US. If it does serve the purpose of protecting the bowel flora during bouts of cholera / dysentery, then it probably is superfluous in a developed country and will be selected against (esp in fertile women as appendicitis usually strikes people between 10-30.) I do wonder if it is able to salvage more bacteria when faced with antibiotics and if it helps repopulate the gut in developed countries after a pt takes a Z-pak or fluoroquinole for their "bronchitis."
"Fucktard" here, gotta love an ignorant Bush hater AC. You only prove my point: If the US is going to be expected to be world police "Why won't the Americans save us?," then yes, it will be expensive and yes, it will cost lives. And the war is expensive.. because wars are expensive. Money "given" to "lucky people" ??? Source? Maybe if we outsourced some more to the Chinese...
We did sit on the sidelines while the UN bungled Rwanda. So much for the UN. And I am sure the American people would be really happy to be directly involved in another war right now when recent experience has taught us that we will be going it alone. We can't afford to make peace in Iraq, Afghanistan and another nation. Bush has learned that the US will be going it alone on any of these missions (I know, our allies have "contributed") will be expensive and drawn out. A lame-duck president can't do that especially with the very real possibility of a looming recession
I think its great the company spokesperson has the cojones to say that "even a girl can beat it." Their machine has broken people's arms and now they make fun of the people who have sustained injuries. Do they want a lawsuit?
I own one, my brother owns one, my mother has one, my father has one. My boss has one, my 2 best friends each have one. You can't go outside without seeing people using them. Its hardly a marketplace flop; initial sales projections were off, and they are selling quite nicely.
I haven't found a resistance to using computerized prescriptions where they are effectively implemented- there are good programs and bad ones. Power failures and system freezes are 2 of the problems with the present ones. If a program is more efficient, reliable, easy to use and codes/bills effectively, you can be sure that doctors will not resist it. There are a few subpar programs out there that i have used that are not effective. The lack of transparency is, I believe, less a matter of pride and more one of fear of litigation. Threats of lawsuits are extremely common and real ones are common enough. We do have internal reviews that do evaluate cases/poor outcomes. Advertising companies push meds to the public; i read up on meds and prescribe what I think is appropriate. I personally don't rely on drug companies/reps to be completely forthright with their meds and I am not alone.
I'll try to address your points (some of which are valid)
First, the vast majority of doctors do not possess programming skills to create the database/program for computerized prescriptions. Most are happy to use it as it is usually quicker, more legible, goes on file automatically and checks against allergies to the medication. I have not met a doctor who thinks he is completely infallible- although some have a "God complex"
Second - doctors do rely on their "expertise," which does not mean ignoring "empirically validated methodologies" - do you think there is a conspiracy to actively participate in bad medicine when there is typically no benefit to it. Where's the tin foil hat?
Third, I don't think doctors are interested in competing against more physicians for the same job; who wants their job taken by someone for less? That said, the artificial limits (largely circumvented by foreign medical schools but still limited by residency slots) do keep the quality of MDs up as it is fairly competitive to get into med school
Fourth, if you want us to watch commercials to find out the latest meds you will be disappointed. The advertisement of prescription meds has gotten ridiculous - the commercials are laughable. Doctors are not trying to ignore the literature out there- there is a large amount out there and computers and programmers are helping us access it more every day.
As a physician, I resent your inaccurate and uninformed response. "Doctors are taught that every diagnosis can be life or death" - where did you hear that? You are making sweeping generalizations and accusations. The ASSUMPTION that physicians resist using a computer to research a medical problem is ridiculous (at least in the US.) I do not know a MD that is not comfortable with a computer nor with researching a medical problem online. We often have resources that the general public does not use, and due to lack of an additional 7-11 years of post-grad training, would not understand. You seem to typify the person that turns to herbs from China that mostly consist of grass/dirt and expound how modern science is ignoring it. We very much appreciated you in the dark ages, thanks for your insight!
I may be wrong, but I believe 1 amp and 1 volt for 1 second is a "joule." A joule per second is a "watt." Anyways, as I recall the energy capacity of a capacitor in joules is 1/2 X Farads X Voltage ^2. I don't know where my old physics books are to check this.
Wen
As an ER doctor, I'd like to respond to the people that think that a $10 ECG machine shows how inefficient the medical profession is. It's comparable to making a voltmeter out of radio shack parts and bragging about it to an engineer. Yes, most present day ECG machines give a reading of the rhythm strip- however, they are constricted to very narrow parameters. Tests have been shown to demonstrate that the most accurate interpretation of results is the combination of the ECG machine's reading overread by a cardiologist. The computer's interpretration is valuable, but I often obtain an "abnormal" reading by the machine with normal ECG's. The programmer errs with caution with the machine and normal variants are often read as abnormal- no one wants to get sued. The most important thing to regard when obtaining an ECG is the history a patient gives to you. The most important information in determining serious consequences of a cardiac event are usually from a patients history: not one machine's reading. A "gold standard" is often hard to come by when interpreting an ECG. An MI (myocardial infarction) may be confirmed by cardiac enzymes (blood test,) but is only truly confirmed by changes in wall motion ( of the heart) after the event by an ultrasound. A specialty in cardiology is only obtained after a fellowship in cardiology (after 4 years of med school and 3 years of internal medicine.) I think its a neat project- just don't get too caught up in the results without seeing a physician.
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As one of the "dudes" who says "push," I think what you are saying is a bit oversimplified. Ob/gyn's have the highest malpractice insurance- averaging over $130,000 a year in my state. Do you think this is because you could do it? So you finish in the top of your class in high school and college and spend most of the next decade working your ass off in med school and residency and then have loans of hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay off and we are "OVERPRICED?" The vast majority of the patients I saw at the last hospital did NOT pay for their healthcare. This makes it hard to recoup expenses. Anyways, go watch your cheap-ass TV.
that's the first thing I thought of
well put. This is often ignored by the masses. Testing new drugs (FDA) is neither cheap nor quick; and socialist nations get the fruits of our labor.
I work in an ER, and people don't just go in for emergencies. They often come because we are more convenient or they figure that they won't pay and that we have to treat them. A good portion of my job is either convincing someone that they either have or don't have an emergency. And for the record, Medicaid doesn't even pay for billing. So, in other words, government health care in this regard, is not particularly well appreciated by the medical community.
in south florida the post office takes forever, and I can get stuff quickly at Walmart, what was your point?
It seems that we should approach singularity with some trepidation. During most of human civilization, the more technologically advanced society overran or eliminated the less advanced once. I see no reason that we should expect a higher intelligence to necessarily be a benevolent one. I'm not predicting Skynet a la Terminator, but wouldn't humans become redundant/superfluous in this future world. We would still be consuming large amounts of resources that could otherwise go to these sentient beings. I mean nuclear weapons are scary, but at least they have a button to control them.
Maybe having the police officers (not "cops" as this is considered a derogatory slang term) fill out more paperwork to make you feel more secure would make you happy after they discharge their tasers. If you want to qualify it as torture, it is something every police officer in training goes through nowadays in the US. "Excited delirium" sounds like an interesting term; qualifying a persons intent and threat can be a pretty hairy situation and I, who have also "known several cops," think its great that they don't have to use a conventional firearm to subdue them. If you really think that to safely use a stun gun someone basically needs to be within the scope of your physical control, you are incorrect. You seem to be paranoid or delusional and have a strange fear of the police. Who do you root for when the Joe Schmow hits the police officer? Your level of understanding of what they do for a living is atrocious and despicable. I am saddened that you have been rated as insightful.
I think Andy Grove could figure this out for all of us as the medical community is nowhere as "efficient" as his processors link: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/05/1855207 tongue firmly in cheek
Out of curosity, are you sure that the parent kept the entire population dumb. Your post seems very accusatory of the parent. And saying murder or rape is to be acceptable is beyond idiotic. As far as South Africa not thriving, are we to blame the parent for the utter failure of the whole continent. Give me a break.
As the the other poster said, he was not "subdued." As you call cops pathetic that they had trouble holding him down, I wonder what experience you have in restraining violent people. If he would have gotten loose and grabbed one of the officers guns, things could have ended up much differently. And if you think the cops are "dirt shit stupid" and the guy in custody is a reasonable man from what you see in a brief grainy video, then you sir are not a "Genius." A person that continues to fight and resist arrest presents a dangerous situation for everyone, hell, his wife called the police because of that. Maybe the police should call you as you seem to have some knowledge of how to take care of these matters.
Having not been at the trial and not knowing all the specifics, I do take issue with some of what you are saying. "problem with epilepsy medication" does not begin to explain why he was initially violent and his wife called the cops. He may have been post-ictal (state of confusion and sometimes violent behavior following a seizure.) Having been struck and seeing other hospital personnel get hurt by epileptics after their seizures when they can't be reasoned with is a dangerous situation. Not knowing the full situation of what happened, I think it would be fair to say that the number of police called in was because he was resisting arrest - I mean he appeared to be fighting to the end. "The solution is to stop, admit that we're afraid..." it trite and shows that you have no first hand experience in these situations. "We don't get to hurt or kill other people just because we're afraid" - if someone is acting in a threatening manner then I am glad that police have a rarely lethal way of subduing the person. I would gladly like to watch you lecture police on your contemplation of how they should act in these situations.
Your not-inconsiderable portion of the population is considerable - about 7%. Appendicitis does kill often if left untreated. Delay in diagnosis is the principle reason for mortality so to "chop" it off at the first sign of inflammation is usually a good idea. Spontaneous resolution of appendicitis is not something to wait for. Having a patient perforate in front of you is considered bad medicine in the US. If it does serve the purpose of protecting the bowel flora during bouts of cholera / dysentery, then it probably is superfluous in a developed country and will be selected against (esp in fertile women as appendicitis usually strikes people between 10-30.) I do wonder if it is able to salvage more bacteria when faced with antibiotics and if it helps repopulate the gut in developed countries after a pt takes a Z-pak or fluoroquinole for their "bronchitis."
Wouldn't it be a bit premature to gauge air superiority while we just have a few pictures of a model of the plane.
"Fucktard" here, gotta love an ignorant Bush hater AC. You only prove my point: If the US is going to be expected to be world police "Why won't the Americans save us?," then yes, it will be expensive and yes, it will cost lives. And the war is expensive.. because wars are expensive. Money "given" to "lucky people" ??? Source? Maybe if we outsourced some more to the Chinese...
We did sit on the sidelines while the UN bungled Rwanda. So much for the UN. And I am sure the American people would be really happy to be directly involved in another war right now when recent experience has taught us that we will be going it alone. We can't afford to make peace in Iraq, Afghanistan and another nation. Bush has learned that the US will be going it alone on any of these missions (I know, our allies have "contributed") will be expensive and drawn out. A lame-duck president can't do that especially with the very real possibility of a looming recession
I think its great the company spokesperson has the cojones to say that "even a girl can beat it." Their machine has broken people's arms and now they make fun of the people who have sustained injuries. Do they want a lawsuit?
I own one, my brother owns one, my mother has one, my father has one. My boss has one, my 2 best friends each have one. You can't go outside without seeing people using them. Its hardly a marketplace flop; initial sales projections were off, and they are selling quite nicely.
I haven't found a resistance to using computerized prescriptions where they are effectively implemented- there are good programs and bad ones. Power failures and system freezes are 2 of the problems with the present ones. If a program is more efficient, reliable, easy to use and codes/bills effectively, you can be sure that doctors will not resist it. There are a few subpar programs out there that i have used that are not effective. The lack of transparency is, I believe, less a matter of pride and more one of fear of litigation. Threats of lawsuits are extremely common and real ones are common enough. We do have internal reviews that do evaluate cases/poor outcomes. Advertising companies push meds to the public; i read up on meds and prescribe what I think is appropriate. I personally don't rely on drug companies/reps to be completely forthright with their meds and I am not alone.
I'll try to address your points (some of which are valid) First, the vast majority of doctors do not possess programming skills to create the database/program for computerized prescriptions. Most are happy to use it as it is usually quicker, more legible, goes on file automatically and checks against allergies to the medication. I have not met a doctor who thinks he is completely infallible- although some have a "God complex" Second - doctors do rely on their "expertise," which does not mean ignoring "empirically validated methodologies" - do you think there is a conspiracy to actively participate in bad medicine when there is typically no benefit to it. Where's the tin foil hat? Third, I don't think doctors are interested in competing against more physicians for the same job; who wants their job taken by someone for less? That said, the artificial limits (largely circumvented by foreign medical schools but still limited by residency slots) do keep the quality of MDs up as it is fairly competitive to get into med school Fourth, if you want us to watch commercials to find out the latest meds you will be disappointed. The advertisement of prescription meds has gotten ridiculous - the commercials are laughable. Doctors are not trying to ignore the literature out there- there is a large amount out there and computers and programmers are helping us access it more every day.
As a physician, I resent your inaccurate and uninformed response. "Doctors are taught that every diagnosis can be life or death" - where did you hear that? You are making sweeping generalizations and accusations. The ASSUMPTION that physicians resist using a computer to research a medical problem is ridiculous (at least in the US.) I do not know a MD that is not comfortable with a computer nor with researching a medical problem online. We often have resources that the general public does not use, and due to lack of an additional 7-11 years of post-grad training, would not understand. You seem to typify the person that turns to herbs from China that mostly consist of grass/dirt and expound how modern science is ignoring it. We very much appreciated you in the dark ages, thanks for your insight!
I may be wrong, but I believe 1 amp and 1 volt for 1 second is a "joule." A joule per second is a "watt." Anyways, as I recall the energy capacity of a capacitor in joules is 1/2 X Farads X Voltage ^2. I don't know where my old physics books are to check this. Wen
www.ussubs.com
As an ER doctor, I'd like to respond to the people that think that a $10 ECG machine shows how inefficient the medical profession is. It's comparable to making a voltmeter out of radio shack parts and bragging about it to an engineer. Yes, most present day ECG machines give a reading of the rhythm strip- however, they are constricted to very narrow parameters. Tests have been shown to demonstrate that the most accurate interpretation of results is the combination of the ECG machine's reading overread by a cardiologist. The computer's interpretration is valuable, but I often obtain an "abnormal" reading by the machine with normal ECG's. The programmer errs with caution with the machine and normal variants are often read as abnormal- no one wants to get sued. The most important thing to regard when obtaining an ECG is the history a patient gives to you. The most important information in determining serious consequences of a cardiac event are usually from a patients history: not one machine's reading. A "gold standard" is often hard to come by when interpreting an ECG. An MI (myocardial infarction) may be confirmed by cardiac enzymes (blood test,) but is only truly confirmed by changes in wall motion ( of the heart) after the event by an ultrasound. A specialty in cardiology is only obtained after a fellowship in cardiology (after 4 years of med school and 3 years of internal medicine.) I think its a neat project- just don't get too caught up in the results without seeing a physician.