4 ms·

My very tangential observations in the cardiology domain is that it is in some respects a dark art that requires years, perhaps decades of experience to underst

My very tangential observations in the cardiology domain is that it is in some respects a dark art that requires years, perhaps decades of experience to understand underlying mechanisms. While this certainly looks promising in a person / not person recognition kinda way; I'm hoping it can shed some insight the interaction between scarring and conductivity that leads to arrhythmias.

jrapdx3 5y ago
Your observation about practicing medicine being a "dark art" has a lot of merit. As such the idea applies to most if not all medical specialties and I strongly suspect is no less true among science-based disciplines in general. In health care domains we desperately want to believe providers know precisely what they're doing. It's particularly vexing to find out that "facts" are surrounded by an intrinsic level of uncertainty. IOW whatever action a practitioner deems best in a given situation is a judgement call grounded in experience. Sure, that's bolstered by underlying science, systematic investigations and published reports, but still there's no escaping the probabilistic nature of knowledge in the fields of medicine. The provider you want to have is one who strives to do what's possible up to the limits of techniques and technology, and above all seeks to learn from every patient encounter.
Smileyferret 5y ago
I don’t disagree with you that much of medicine is hand-waving and voodoo magic, but arrhythmias due to scar tissue likely have a similar mechanism to other well-studied arrhythmias. Overall I think that cardiology has some of the more scientific explanations of its pathophysiology than other fields. Scarring simply interrupts smooth conduction of impulses throughout the myocardium and makes it more susceptible to arrhythmias. If you want to see a similar mechanism explained, check out this video: https://youtu.be/j8pVU9snSH4 https://youtu.be/j8pVU9snSH4
- earleybird 5y ago
  Thanks for the link. I need to choose words better - rather than "dark arts" I probably should have said "tacit knowledge". I certainly didn't mean to imply that arrhythmias are not well studied, rather, my hope is that we can use AI methods to do better science. side note: I know EEs who claim antenna design is a black art :-) It also is well studied and yet according to some, it appears magical at times.

jrapdx3 5y ago

Your observation about practicing medicine being a "dark art" has a lot of merit. As such the idea applies to most if not all medical specialties and I strongly suspect is no less true among science-based disciplines in general. In health care domains we desperately want to believe providers know precisely what they're doing. It's particularly vexing to find out that "facts" are surrounded by an intrinsic level of uncertainty. IOW whatever action a practitioner deems best in a given situation is a judgement call grounded in experience. Sure, that's bolstered by underlying science, systematic investigations and published reports, but still there's no escaping the probabilistic nature of knowledge in the fields of medicine. The provider you want to have is one who strives to do what's possible up to the limits of techniques and technology, and above all seeks to learn from every patient encounter.

Smileyferret 5y ago

I don’t disagree with you that much of medicine is hand-waving and voodoo magic, but arrhythmias due to scar tissue likely have a similar mechanism to other well-studied arrhythmias. Overall I think that cardiology has some of the more scientific explanations of its pathophysiology than other fields. Scarring simply interrupts smooth conduction of impulses throughout the myocardium and makes it more susceptible to arrhythmias. If you want to see a similar mechanism explained, check out this video: https://youtu.be/j8pVU9snSH4 https://youtu.be/j8pVU9snSH4

earleybird 5y ago
Thanks for the link. I need to choose words better - rather than "dark arts" I probably should have said "tacit knowledge". I certainly didn't mean to imply that arrhythmias are not well studied, rather, my hope is that we can use AI methods to do better science. side note: I know EEs who claim antenna design is a black art :-) It also is well studied and yet according to some, it appears magical at times.