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Hmm, why would an industry based on profiting from high margin expensive medical technology not sufficiently promote low margin inexpensive technology? It's a m

Hmm, why would an industry based on profiting from high margin expensive medical technology not sufficiently promote low margin inexpensive technology? It's a mystery.

Consultant32452 8y ago
A related mystery: what's stopping greedy practitioners from using the cheap device but still charging the old price increasing their margins even more?
- hirundo 8y ago
  > But cpap machines, the standard device in a country like the U.S., are expensive and require uninterrupted electricity. In many countries, Burke says, doctors resort to using a makeshift solution: a Coke bottle filled with water and attached to some tubing There's a limit to what you can charge for a coke bottle attached to some tubing that's much lower than for a machine that blinks and beeps and goes whirrr with lots of knobs and buttons. Sometimes the solution is to hide the bottle and tubing in a complicated looking box. Of course not _all_ of it is theater.
  - bsder 8y ago
    Um, please, finish the quote: > "In many countries, Burke says, doctors resort to using a makeshift solution: a Coke bottle filled with water and attached to some tubing. The D.I.Y. approach can save an infant’s life but risks causing blindness." That NOT a better solution, thanks. The entire article is rife with this. Ketamine isn't a better anesthetic--it's acceptable if you don't have enough anesthesiologists. The condom with a catherer isn't better, but it is acceptable if you don't have a real UBT. It's disappointing to see the fact that the ethics really aren't clear until the whole way at the end rather than acknowledging it in a much more important manner earlier in the article. > "Kass, the bioethicist, is trying to puzzle out the ethics of what might be seen as lower-quality solutions." Doctors are also more likely to use these solutions with lower-socioeconomic groups--that is the whole point of them being cheaper, after all. And that opens an even bigger issue in places like the US.

Hmm, why would an industry based on profiting from high margin expensive medical technology not sufficiently promote low margin inexpensive technology? It's a mystery.

Consultant32452 8y ago

A related mystery: what's stopping greedy practitioners from using the cheap device but still charging the old price increasing their margins even more?

hirundo 8y ago
> But cpap machines, the standard device in a country like the U.S., are expensive and require uninterrupted electricity. In many countries, Burke says, doctors resort to using a makeshift solution: a Coke bottle filled with water and attached to some tubing There's a limit to what you can charge for a coke bottle attached to some tubing that's much lower than for a machine that blinks and beeps and goes whirrr with lots of knobs and buttons. Sometimes the solution is to hide the bottle and tubing in a complicated looking box. Of course not _all_ of it is theater.
- bsder 8y ago
  Um, please, finish the quote: > "In many countries, Burke says, doctors resort to using a makeshift solution: a Coke bottle filled with water and attached to some tubing. The D.I.Y. approach can save an infant’s life but risks causing blindness." That NOT a better solution, thanks. The entire article is rife with this. Ketamine isn't a better anesthetic--it's acceptable if you don't have enough anesthesiologists. The condom with a catherer isn't better, but it is acceptable if you don't have a real UBT. It's disappointing to see the fact that the ethics really aren't clear until the whole way at the end rather than acknowledging it in a much more important manner earlier in the article. > "Kass, the bioethicist, is trying to puzzle out the ethics of what might be seen as lower-quality solutions." Doctors are also more likely to use these solutions with lower-socioeconomic groups--that is the whole point of them being cheaper, after all. And that opens an even bigger issue in places like the US.