When we look at healthcare, what's wrong with it, and what needs to happen to fix it, we can't see as clearly how the web, technology, and large networks of eng

When we look at healthcare, what's wrong with it, and what needs to happen to fix it, we can't see as clearly how the web, technology, and large networks of engaged users can impact healthcare in a positive way. Because we are not allowed to. I can't even write an iOS app that shows images if they happen to be X-Rays.[1] Its a group of giant monopolies and special interests who as an industry spend more on lobbying than any other industry ($250m in 2010)[2] And they need to. The industry is ripe for disruption. It amazes me that we allow utterly fallible human beings to attempt to diagnose in a 5 minute appointment conditions that they may never have heard of. And we talk of older doctors having more experience, but only more experience in the stuff they see everyday. Meanwhile computers can diagnose conditions more accurately than humans [3] but we'll see how far the AMA lets that go. Probably require an extra specially trained doctor to operate it. They'll probably require a man to run in front of it with a flag lest this dangerous machine hurt a patient. [1] http://www.macworld.com/article/161397/2011/07/fda_regulations_for_ios_apps.html http://www.macworld.com/article/161397/2011/07/fda_regulatio... [2] http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?showYear=2010&indexType=i http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?showYear=2010&i... [3] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3219909 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3219909