7 ms·
That's quite a lot you've taken away from one anecdote. ACE-inhibitors are well-known to cause a cough but not like the one you're describing. If I was to gue
by jazoom 10y ago
That's quite a lot you've taken away from one anecdote.
ACE-inhibitors are well-known to cause a cough but not like the one you're describing.
If I was to guess I'd say he had a respiratory tract infection that magically disappeared (as they do) not long after ceasing the medication. This is a common type of scenario where lay people get confused about correlation and causation, and is one of the reasons you need doctors to help you.
Even if it was the medication, like I said, this sounds like a somewhat unusual case.
You'll probably spend the rest of your life thinking the doctors didn't know what they were talking about, but in my experience with doctors (I have a lot of that since I'm a doctor myself), even the "median" ones are far better at diagnosing things than lay people.
- pizza 10y agoI think that a median doctor + a statistical classification scheme > a median doctor alone, though.
- jazoom 10y agoSure. And most of us would be super keen to use that. In fact, ED doctors in particular use heaps of things like that. Maybe instead of rule systems we will eventually use deep learning algorithms.
- temp246810 10y agoI don't know - if you're at all in a profession that requires problem solving, it can be quite jarring to work with a doctor. For any given complaint, most will just tell you that your test results are in the normal range (don't get me started on this "normal range") and tell you there's nothing they can do. I live in the bay area and have had a few GPs over the years, some from well known institutions. Doctor's seem to put in the minimal amount of effort to get you out of their office in the allotted 20 minutes so that they can move on to the next patient. I have multiple anecdotes similar to OP's - times where if it weren't for my insisting or my own inkling to visit a specialist I just would never have been helped. Are there goood GP's? I'm sure there are - but to casually dismiss OP's statement is a bit ironic - since casually dismissing is part of the biggest problems as far as my own experience with doctors.
- jazoom 10y agoYour problem with doctors sounds like it's their time constraint. Why don't you pay a bit more to get a longer consult? You want them to work magic in 20 minutes? I responded to OP's statement. Dismissing is quite different.
- swampthing 10y agoWhy don't the doctors just tell him that they need more time to address his concerns properly, rather than dismissing his concerns?
- jazoom 10y agoI don't know. Maybe they do? Maybe OP needs a different doctor who is more aligned with what he/she wants.
- gleb 10y agoWon't happen. Unlike engineers, doctors are trained to come up with a diagnosis given whatever subset of information can be presented to them and understood by them in the time allowed. The main source of their information is not even the patient, but prevalence (i.e. prior probabilities). It's a 80/20 sort of system, really more like 95/5. It's a lot like YC office hours actually. Though doctors have less time than YC partners. And doctors get paid per appointment. In general, it's not useful to think of doctors as engineers. The line doctors work is much more tech support - lots of similar highly repeatable cases, with a well understood script. The ones that are more like engineers are doing research in research hospitals and writing that script. They still see some patients as part of their work, but appointment reimbursements are not a profit center for them, but part of their research.
- vor0nwe 10y agoWhen making an appointment, my GP's assistant explicitly asks whether you've got multiple complaints, and if so, to list them; before explaining that in that case, they can reserve more time. Then again, my previous GP said he had 7 minutes per consultation. (FWIW, I’m in the Netherlands).
- civility 10y ago> even the "median" ones are far better at diagnosing things than lay people We aren't comparing doctors to "lay people" - we're comparing them to machine learning algorithms. I'd prefer the machine to many of the arrogant, but mediocre, doctors I've seen in my life.
- jazoom 10y agoActually, OP was comparing doctors to his lay friend, who diagnosed the cough. Edit: It seems "UCSF resident friend" is American for doctor. I suppose my statement was actually out of context then.
- seizethecheese 10y agoThis response makes me want to coin a new term: "doctor-splaining."
- Cacti 10y agoYou're looking for "docsplaining"
- seizethecheese 10y agoYeah, that's better.