3 ms·

This will sound simplistic, but do hospitals/doctors conduct any type of general questionnaire about patient lifestyle details (general habits, type of food/dri

by jb775 5y ago

This will sound simplistic, but do hospitals/doctors conduct any type of general questionnaire about patient lifestyle details (general habits, type of food/drink consumed, sleep habits, type of shampoo/toothpaste/hand cream they use, where their drinking water comes from, etc) that could be used for cross reference in relation to whatever disease/cancer they have? I feel like given the sheer number of healthcare patients, we should be able to identify trends with a few simple Excel formulas. E.g. People are more likely to get ${disease} who drank well water from ${location} between ${yearStart}-${yearEnd} It's worth remembering that healthcare industry decision-makers (on the business side of things) aren't naturally incentivized to actually fix any major healthcare issues...their focus is how to maximize profit, and reducing the number of patients doesn't align with that. In other words, it feels like something there is ripe for disruption.

lawwantsin17 5y ago
The disruptor corp would have to be worker owned or otherwise not interested in growth or they'd just be a distraction
vlovich123 5y ago
Self-reported studies are bunk and relying on them is bunk science as far as I’m concerned. We know that non-response and outright lies are a problem. So you’ve got a garbage in garbage out scenario. There may be places where surveys are scientifically justifiable but I have yet to see such beyond basic preference ones. Even in simpler cases like political surveys there’s lots of problems and they fail us with regularity. Do you really think more complex applications somehow avoid the problems?
- jb775 5y ago
  Rather than asking patients directly, they could at least use their previous addresses to deduce many things, such as water supply source, air pollution, etc (while keeping it anonymized). The govt could even run studies on cancer deaths cross referenced with location data from their tax returns, and their parent's tax returns (to figure out where they lived as a child). I'm just saying I've never heard this common sense approach actually discussed. It just seems like we often ignore the concept of "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

by jb775 5y ago

lawwantsin17 5y ago

The disruptor corp would have to be worker owned or otherwise not interested in growth or they'd just be a distraction

vlovich123 5y ago

Self-reported studies are bunk and relying on them is bunk science as far as I’m concerned. We know that non-response and outright lies are a problem. So you’ve got a garbage in garbage out scenario. There may be places where surveys are scientifically justifiable but I have yet to see such beyond basic preference ones. Even in simpler cases like political surveys there’s lots of problems and they fail us with regularity. Do you really think more complex applications somehow avoid the problems?

jb775 5y ago
Rather than asking patients directly, they could at least use their previous addresses to deduce many things, such as water supply source, air pollution, etc (while keeping it anonymized). The govt could even run studies on cancer deaths cross referenced with location data from their tax returns, and their parent's tax returns (to figure out where they lived as a child). I'm just saying I've never heard this common sense approach actually discussed. It just seems like we often ignore the concept of "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".