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very nice bit of blind generalization there... agree the government hospitals aren't the best bit down there. However, there are tons of hospitals which offer e

very nice bit of blind generalization there... agree the government hospitals aren't the best bit down there. However, there are tons of hospitals which offer equal or better care with on-par facilities as here, minus the high costs. Insurance is a big nightmare here, which I fear might just catch on in places like India as a lot of practices are just adopted from the west without much thought on the basis of being "innovative". I had an absolute torrid time when I was hospitalized here as a student and the insurance provided by the school didn't even cover 50% of the cost because they found ways to deny basic items of coverage. You're right in saying that the laws and the lobbying pretty much lets the insurance companies get away with murder. For those who haven't read this, there's a brilliant piece by Atul Gawande in the New Yorker about the system needs to change for the better: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_... Hope I wasn't too tangential ranting off but calling it a dangerous fluff piece is just being ignorant. Cost can be brought down by not compromising on quality.

todayiamme 16y ago
Of course, costs can be brought down without compromising on quality, but please stop and think about the "innovation" over here; >>>In 1995, the famous Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai, India, developed a course that would give lay people basic skills needed for maintenance of ophthalmic instruments. One of us (V. Srinivasan) — a retired professor of physics with rich experience in laboratory work — helped to develop that course. The methodology used was "learning by doing." It wasn't so different from how kids learn to ride a bicycle or to swim. As a result of this hands-on approach, people with very different educational backgrounds, who spoke a variety of languages, could participate. Soon, we were able to care for equipment at a fraction of the cost it would have taken to create a separate, specialized service staff.<<< Over here this is called hacking. Training people in situ to do minor repairs like this isn't exactly a ground breaking achievement. It is certainly an excellent example of efficient and lean management, but to call it an "innovation" is to jump the shark. Real innovation is when someone comes up with a tele-medicine app for the iPhone which offers early diagnosis and treatment of retinopathy of prematurity to remote areas. (see: http://www.technologyreview.in/biomedicine/24311/ http://www.technologyreview.in/biomedicine/24311/) That is innovation. The irony over here is that such people are hardly ever respected in this piece of land, and people instead of working with them offer hassles to them. Do you think it was easy for them to sell such a concept to a technophobic country? (there is a reason why startups are rare in India. Moreover, when people start them they face stuff like; "what you're starting a company? You're insane. You'll ruin your life." )

todayiamme 16y ago

Of course, costs can be brought down without compromising on quality, but please stop and think about the "innovation" over here; >>>In 1995, the famous Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai, India, developed a course that would give lay people basic skills needed for maintenance of ophthalmic instruments. One of us (V. Srinivasan) — a retired professor of physics with rich experience in laboratory work — helped to develop that course. The methodology used was "learning by doing." It wasn't so different from how kids learn to ride a bicycle or to swim. As a result of this hands-on approach, people with very different educational backgrounds, who spoke a variety of languages, could participate. Soon, we were able to care for equipment at a fraction of the cost it would have taken to create a separate, specialized service staff.<<< Over here this is called hacking. Training people in situ to do minor repairs like this isn't exactly a ground breaking achievement. It is certainly an excellent example of efficient and lean management, but to call it an "innovation" is to jump the shark. Real innovation is when someone comes up with a tele-medicine app for the iPhone which offers early diagnosis and treatment of retinopathy of prematurity to remote areas. (see: http://www.technologyreview.in/biomedicine/24311/ http://www.technologyreview.in/biomedicine/24311/) That is innovation. The irony over here is that such people are hardly ever respected in this piece of land, and people instead of working with them offer hassles to them. Do you think it was easy for them to sell such a concept to a technophobic country? (there is a reason why startups are rare in India. Moreover, when people start them they face stuff like; "what you're starting a company? You're insane. You'll ruin your life." )