3 ms·

Could you elaborate?

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
Karnickel 9y ago
For example, https://ask.metafilter.com/297591/Origin-of-the-term-Engineers-Disease https://ask.metafilter.com/297591/Origin-of-the-term-Enginee... > ...used to describe engineers and other technical folks assuming their technical knowledge of systems (usually computer, mechanical/electrical) gives them expertise in solving other complex issues. Most of health care is a power/influence and social problem: Who gets to control things, who gets the money, who gets influence over the streams of money through the system? That's not an engineering problem but power play. Even if you _could_ show, using science, that you would get better outcomes with other methods, I don't think the people struggling for the honey pot care. That's why thinking an engineer could build a better health care system seems misguided to me. Better machines to be used as part of the system, sure, but not the system itself. That's politics and hard-core power struggle for the money first of all. If the currently relevant people cared about the health outcomes they would already have changed the system. After all, that "U.S. Spends More on Health Care Than Other High-Income Nations But Has Lower Life Expectancy, Worse Health" (Americans Get Less Health Care, Spend More for It) [0] is not exactly news. [0] http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/press-releases/2015/oct/us-spends-more-on-health-care-than-other-nations http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/press-releases/...
- dqpb 9y ago
  Politics and power struggles don't build systems, they build shit-shows. Engineers build systems.
  - pjmorris 9y ago
    Engineers build systems, but who writes the specification for those systems, and who pays for them? Jerry Weinberg's [0] second law of consulting is "No matter what it looks like, it's a people problem." [1],[2]. [0] http://www.geraldmweinberg.com/ http://www.geraldmweinberg.com/, @JerryWeinberg [1] https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/alikl/2008/11/12/three-laws-of-consulting-by-gerald-m-weinberg/ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/alikl/2008/11/12/three-laws... [2] "The Secrets of Consulting", Weinberg
  - meddlepal 9y ago
    Engineers build shit-shows too... everyday.
  - orf 9y ago
    > Politics and power struggles don't build systems, they build shit-shows. Engineers build systems. The shit-show that is my current engineering-built system would beg to differ.
    - dqpb 9y ago
      which system is that?
      - orf 9y ago
        One built by engineers?
ch4s3 9y ago
Engineer's Disease refers to specialists in one field assuming that they can speak with authority some other unrelated field. Healthcare in the US is notoriously complex and complicated, it would be naive to assume Amazon's success in distribution, ecommerce, and cloud services would necessarily translate to health care.
- sheraz 9y ago
  True, but there is a lot of low hanging fruit in the digital health space that amazon is especially efficient at.
  - aaavl2821 9y ago
    People have been pursuing "low hanging fruit in the digital health space" for the last 5 years with little to show for it. Most successful (as measured by acquisitions / adoption in the broader industry, not by VC funding raised) health IT startups come from "flyover" states and are created by people with tons of domain expertise and enough engineering chops to execute, not the other way around
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- mythrwy 9y ago
  Complex and complicated is an understatement. It's a complete mess with a lot of very greedy unscrupulous people involved. A lot of times the "care" people get is really crappy also, in spite of expensive insurance. Oh, but they'll be sure to offer you a $30 orange juice. Then you'll be getting bills for months/years afterwords and not be completely sure what they are for. I realize medicine is a specialty. I realize it takes a lot of training to be a doctor. But I've always believed that a lot of what medicine solves isn't unknowably esoteric. A lot of it can be solved by a person with some hands on experience and good observational powers and base knowledge (not brain surgery obviously but things like yeast infections, simple broken bones, etc.). The whole thing really is more ripe for disruption than any other area I can think of.
stfp 9y ago
Because Bezos is good at playing whatever competitive/industrial game he's playing at doesn't mean he can "fix health care" Also countries that have reasonable policies don't have them because of Jeff Bezos or any single "savior" (industrial or political maven), outside of a few (but well known) exceptions; in many ways, our "faith in science" (lol) and the next high tech tweak is preventing us from delivering pragmatic, proven, reasonable solutions today

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

For example, https://ask.metafilter.com/297591/Origin-of-the-term-Engineers-Disease https://ask.metafilter.com/297591/Origin-of-the-term-Enginee... > ...used to describe engineers and other technical folks assuming their technical knowledge of systems (usually computer, mechanical/electrical) gives them expertise in solving other complex issues. Most of health care is a power/influence and social problem: Who gets to control things, who gets the money, who gets influence over the streams of money through the system? That's not an engineering problem but power play. Even if you _could_ show, using science, that you would get better outcomes with other methods, I don't think the people struggling for the honey pot care. That's why thinking an engineer could build a better health care system seems misguided to me. Better machines to be used as part of the system, sure, but not the system itself. That's politics and hard-core power struggle for the money first of all. If the currently relevant people cared about the health outcomes they would already have changed the system. After all, that "U.S. Spends More on Health Care Than Other High-Income Nations But Has Lower Life Expectancy, Worse Health" (Americans Get Less Health Care, Spend More for It) [0] is not exactly news. [0] http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/press-releases/2015/oct/us-spends-more-on-health-care-than-other-nations http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/press-releases/...

dqpb 9y ago
Politics and power struggles don't build systems, they build shit-shows. Engineers build systems.
- pjmorris 9y ago
  Engineers build systems, but who writes the specification for those systems, and who pays for them? Jerry Weinberg's [0] second law of consulting is "No matter what it looks like, it's a people problem." [1],[2]. [0] http://www.geraldmweinberg.com/ http://www.geraldmweinberg.com/, @JerryWeinberg [1] https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/alikl/2008/11/12/three-laws-of-consulting-by-gerald-m-weinberg/ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/alikl/2008/11/12/three-laws... [2] "The Secrets of Consulting", Weinberg
- meddlepal 9y ago
  Engineers build shit-shows too... everyday.
- orf 9y ago
  > Politics and power struggles don't build systems, they build shit-shows. Engineers build systems. The shit-show that is my current engineering-built system would beg to differ.
  - dqpb 9y ago
    which system is that?
    - orf 9y ago
      One built by engineers?

ch4s3 9y ago

Engineer's Disease refers to specialists in one field assuming that they can speak with authority some other unrelated field. Healthcare in the US is notoriously complex and complicated, it would be naive to assume Amazon's success in distribution, ecommerce, and cloud services would necessarily translate to health care.

sheraz 9y ago
True, but there is a lot of low hanging fruit in the digital health space that amazon is especially efficient at.
- aaavl2821 9y ago
  People have been pursuing "low hanging fruit in the digital health space" for the last 5 years with little to show for it. Most successful (as measured by acquisitions / adoption in the broader industry, not by VC funding raised) health IT startups come from "flyover" states and are created by people with tons of domain expertise and enough engineering chops to execute, not the other way around
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
mythrwy 9y ago
Complex and complicated is an understatement. It's a complete mess with a lot of very greedy unscrupulous people involved. A lot of times the "care" people get is really crappy also, in spite of expensive insurance. Oh, but they'll be sure to offer you a $30 orange juice. Then you'll be getting bills for months/years afterwords and not be completely sure what they are for. I realize medicine is a specialty. I realize it takes a lot of training to be a doctor. But I've always believed that a lot of what medicine solves isn't unknowably esoteric. A lot of it can be solved by a person with some hands on experience and good observational powers and base knowledge (not brain surgery obviously but things like yeast infections, simple broken bones, etc.). The whole thing really is more ripe for disruption than any other area I can think of.

stfp 9y ago

Because Bezos is good at playing whatever competitive/industrial game he's playing at doesn't mean he can "fix health care" Also countries that have reasonable policies don't have them because of Jeff Bezos or any single "savior" (industrial or political maven), outside of a few (but well known) exceptions; in many ways, our "faith in science" (lol) and the next high tech tweak is preventing us from delivering pragmatic, proven, reasonable solutions today