4 ms·

I think medicine will over time morph from a field generally perceived as an intellectual one, to a largely humanistic one, like nursing. Most people, especiall

I think medicine will over time morph from a field generally perceived as an intellectual one, to a largely humanistic one, like nursing. Most people, especially the HN crowd, vastly underestimate the importance of the human touch. A doctor who possesses this can make a huge difference, but sadly the are outnumbered by those who do not.

outlace 10y ago
Medicine isn't really that intellectual. It's mostly based on vast amounts of acquired knowledge via rote memorization and repetitive experiences. It's not like physics or math that requires actual creativity and intellectual vigor. (I'm a 3rd yr med student)
- monkmartinez 10y ago
  Especially as we become evidence based vs. eminence based.
mablap 10y ago
The trend over the last 10 years here in Canada has been exactly that. There are now multiple tests one has to take before med school admissions, all of which are designed to weed out "bad" candidates. The desired candidate seems to be a good human who has the required stamina and intelligence to complete the curriculum. However, since there are so many applicants, schools have no choice but to cut all below a certain GPA. This has an effect on the pool of applicants and the schools are trying to mitigate that.
matheusmoreira 10y ago
I think it's fair to assume many if not most students enter medical school with a sincere desire to help. Will that sentiment survive 6+ years of highly stressful education, though? In my opinion, technology will help reduce the cognitive load sustained by doctors, driving error rates down and simplifying medical education, allowing the professional to focus more on the relationship with the patient. Many specialized guidelines contain actual algorithms: objective and subjective signals to look for, their interpretation and evidence-based recommendations based on them. In one instance in my education, this manifested in the form of giant lookup tables. I was expected to memorize them and keep doing it again and again when they inevitably change in a few years. To me it was like trying to memorize a highly dynamic version of the periodic table of elements. One look at it and I knew a computer could fully implement its logic yet my classmates think I'm crazy for even suggesting it. I say let the computer remember that stuff. It won't replace all of medicine, certainly won't substitute for a proper understanding of the disease... But the act of mapping objective data to evidence-based conduct should really have been abstracted away long ago. The electronic medical records system should bring up these guidelines the moment the physician types the data in. If the doctor types in anthropometric data like BMI and other relevant measurements and they indicate obesity, the system should be able to suggest a proper conduct. Unless they're used in emergency situations where time is essential, doctors shouldn't have to memorize magic numbers much less entire tables of them. With one less thing to cram, maybe school wouldn't be so stressful, doctors would make less mistakes and would also make more time for actually caring about the patient.

outlace 10y ago

Medicine isn't really that intellectual. It's mostly based on vast amounts of acquired knowledge via rote memorization and repetitive experiences. It's not like physics or math that requires actual creativity and intellectual vigor. (I'm a 3rd yr med student)

monkmartinez 10y ago
Especially as we become evidence based vs. eminence based.

mablap 10y ago

The trend over the last 10 years here in Canada has been exactly that. There are now multiple tests one has to take before med school admissions, all of which are designed to weed out "bad" candidates. The desired candidate seems to be a good human who has the required stamina and intelligence to complete the curriculum. However, since there are so many applicants, schools have no choice but to cut all below a certain GPA. This has an effect on the pool of applicants and the schools are trying to mitigate that.

matheusmoreira 10y ago

I think it's fair to assume many if not most students enter medical school with a sincere desire to help. Will that sentiment survive 6+ years of highly stressful education, though? In my opinion, technology will help reduce the cognitive load sustained by doctors, driving error rates down and simplifying medical education, allowing the professional to focus more on the relationship with the patient. Many specialized guidelines contain actual algorithms: objective and subjective signals to look for, their interpretation and evidence-based recommendations based on them. In one instance in my education, this manifested in the form of giant lookup tables. I was expected to memorize them and keep doing it again and again when they inevitably change in a few years. To me it was like trying to memorize a highly dynamic version of the periodic table of elements. One look at it and I knew a computer could fully implement its logic yet my classmates think I'm crazy for even suggesting it. I say let the computer remember that stuff. It won't replace all of medicine, certainly won't substitute for a proper understanding of the disease... But the act of mapping objective data to evidence-based conduct should really have been abstracted away long ago. The electronic medical records system should bring up these guidelines the moment the physician types the data in. If the doctor types in anthropometric data like BMI and other relevant measurements and they indicate obesity, the system should be able to suggest a proper conduct. Unless they're used in emergency situations where time is essential, doctors shouldn't have to memorize magic numbers much less entire tables of them. With one less thing to cram, maybe school wouldn't be so stressful, doctors would make less mistakes and would also make more time for actually caring about the patient.