5 ms·
Device stopped working because your medical prescription has expired
- davikr 3y ago> iTEAR®100 does not run out during its 30 day prescription so you do not have to conserve therapy or worry about wasted practice drops or sprays. > Q: How long does this last? > A: The iTEAR®100 device prescription lasts 30 days at which time it turns off and you will need a new prescription from your doctor for further treatment. After 30 days, the device will be inactive. Alas, medical device DRM.
- yawpitch 3y agoWell, at least it’s not a pacemaker. We haven’t reached end-stage capitalism, yet.
- darby_eight 3y agoWhat is end-stage capitalism? Under the nomenclature of "late-stage capitalism" the next stage is revolution, not "end-state".
- ronsor 3y ago"End-stage" is when there is no revolution because greed has killed everyone already.
- koollman 3y agothe revolution option has expired and cannot be enabled anynmore
- hackable_sand 3y agoI bet they sell pitchforks wholesale.
- yawpitch 3y agoRevolution is what the would-be proletariat persistently, but perhaps delusionally, assumes it will win (despite the 1% being able to afford more than enough bullets)… end-stage is when the cancer has gone past the point of fighting and you just have to resolve yourself to (in this case human-societal) death. A good sign it’s too late to seize the means of production is when the workers have medical devices that require an active and paid up subscription.
- darby_eight 3y ago> Revolution is what the would-be proletariat persistently, but perhaps delusionally, assumes it will win Occasionally, it does win. I think Marx tends to have a point about the inevitability of this given persistent class conflict, but this could play out over centuries rather than something we'll ever see.
- WorkerBee28474 3y agoBeyond that there's still some way to go - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Time
- schiffern 3y ago"a society that uses time from one's lifespan as its primary currency" That's just wages with fewer steps. People trading their time for money?? What an inconceivable future society! :D I was going to suggest something closer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repo!_The_Genetic_Opera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repo!_The_Genetic_Opera
- kuschku 3y agoIsn't that just Michael Ende's Momo but with extra steps?
- BurningFrog 3y agoAnd we never will!
- yawpitch 3y agoDunno, Elon and Bezos seem to be doing their damndest to push past the red line. A pacemaker with an LLM you can chat with would also be a good sign we’ve passed the point of no return.
- Ajay-p 3y agoIn the same way there is Rule 34, I think there applies a similar rule for capitalism: At least it's not a pacemaker, yet, but I'm sure someone is working on it.
- aurizon 3y agoI wonder if there will ever be an 'iBreathe' device = life DRM?
- sparkie 3y ago[flagged]
- datavirtue 3y agoSadly, I think this is already a thing.
- josh_fyi 3y agoThey are probably doing it in an attempt to get coverage by insurance (even if that is now not available). They can then raise the price manyfold. See this discussion of prescription-only smartphone apps. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/welcome-to-the-terrible-world-of https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/welcome-to-the-terrible-wor...
- blackeyeblitzar 3y agoThis should be illegal. Its just anti consumer and anti competitive practices abusing the regulatory system to seek rent.
- ranger_danger 3y agoMaybe, but it's also a bigger philosophical debate between positive and negative freedoms. Do you want the freedom for businesses to operate how they want, or do you want the freedom from unfair business practices? You can't really have both.
- soraminazuki 3y agoWhat? Unchecked capitalism doesn't ensure our freedoms. Quite the opposite, unless you're talking about freedom of the rich to screw over others.
- datavirtue 3y agoCapitalism looks like game theory, where instead of universal cooperation you have every actor working to restrict or steal information from other actors and generally finding ways to insulate yourself to a point where you can just keep hitting the defect button.
- ClumsyPilot 3y agoDo you want freedom from extortion and racketeering? If you do, are you not against free market? Do you want collusion and cartels to be legal? If you do, are you not against free market? It seems the entire distinction of negative vs positive freedom is fictitious.a negative freedom can be a positive freedom when looked at from another perspective
- ranger_danger 3y agoIt's philosophy all the way down, wikipedia style.
- 3y ago
- darby_eight 3y agoAt what point does dependence on insurance become a liability for medical approval? I would have thought we passed that threshold decades ago but the industry appears to have the full throated endorsement of the state for some reason.
- BurningFrog 3y agoI don't see how expiring prescriptions are caused by insurance?
- darby_eight 3y agoPrescriptions are tied to billing. The main party with the incentive to withhold treatment is the party expecting a direct payment from the patient. I might see some concern if there's concern about abuse of the treatment, but that seems like a fundamental mischaracterization of the concept of prescription.
- schiffern 3y agoThen to rephrase the question: >At what point does [the poors dying in the gutter when they can't afford care] become a liability? Never. That's a feature (arguably the feature) of for-profit healthcare, not a bug.
- darby_eight 3y ago> That's a feature (arguably the feature) of for-profit healthcare, not a bug. Ok, at what point can we cull the rich in a comparable way?
- BurningFrog 3y agoI assume you meant "expecting a direct payment TO the patient"? My understanding is that prescriptions are required for medications that carry risk, so a doctor needs to evaluate if it is appropriate for the patient, and at what dose. This avoids people self diagnosing and taking random doses of various medications. Pharmacies are happy to sell you medications that aren't covered by insurance at full price.
- Ajay-p 3y agoA medical device should not require a subscription
- chatmasta 3y agoWhat about a prescription though? If someone invented a device that could synthesize opiates and dispense them on demand, surely that should require a prescription?
- soraminazuki 3y agoThat's some unrelated fairy tale that makes this company look no better.
- chatmasta 3y agoI don’t think it’s unrelated. The title of this post is “prescription required,” not “subscription required.” Whether or not the device should be so regulated as to require a prescription is one question. But if the FDA has determined that it’s required (and thus you must get a prescription from your doctor), then why should you be able to use it after your prescription has expired? If your doctor prescribes you 1000mg of opiates, you don’t get more opiates when you run out of them unless you renew your prescription with your doctor. The problem in this case seems to be that the device requires a prescription in the first place. But since it does, I don’t see an issue with enforcing it.
- soraminazuki 3y agoIf the use of the device genuinely needs continued supervision of a doctor, that's fine. But that's no reason for the device maker to demand eternal payment, which I'm guessing is the case here? If that indeed is the case, then "prescription" is just some corporate lawyer word game.
- cwillu 3y agoThere are far better analogies than opiates though. There's no reason why a treatment that is working and is expected to continue to be effective indefinitely should be withheld because a doctor's appointment didn't happen during the scheduled window one month, any more than my glasses should stop working because I didn't see my opthalmologist this year. Freedom to choose suboptimal outcomes is not a bad thing.
- almostnormal 3y agoWebsite has stopped working... because it has been posted on HN?
- yinser 3y agoI can't wait for repo men to rip the artificial heart out of my body after I can't make the monthly payments. PS They did this shtick for Repo Men (2010) w/ Jude Law.
- jareklupinski 3y agoI was a big fan of the first part in the Repo series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repo!_The_Genetic_Opera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repo!_The_Genetic_Opera
- yinser 3y agoThis looks awesome, thanks for sharing!
- docfort 3y agoThe iTEAR 100 is not generally reimbursed by insurance. If you have an HSA or FSA, you might be able to get it through that. This whole medical device lifetime thing is because it’s regulated for its medical claims by FDA. Given some of the side effects noted here https://itear100.com/clinical-data.html https://itear100.com/clinical-data.html, and how it changes the kind of tears that the user produces, I think it’s reasonable on its face to require a medical professional to review whether it’s working and needs more time with you every month.
- soraminazuki 3y agoBut is it a medical professional reviewing its use, or the device maker repeatedly demanding payment for a device they already sold?
- matsemann 3y agoSometimes I wonder if humanity would be better off if us computer engineers were "real" engineers with licenses and an ethics standard?
- worik 3y agoYes It drives me mad that computer programmers call themselves engineers without ever getting any engineering training In many cases with no tertiary qualifications at all Then there are "software architects". So dishonest. No wonder our industry has such a well deserved reputation for producing very bad products Once upon a time bridge builders built bad bridges, so engineering as an actual discipline was created. We desperately need that. We need to be held to account for what we do, just like bridge builders are
- joebob42 3y agoWhat is the device for? Genuine ignorance and curiosity. Are there folks who cannot produce tears, and do the tears serve an important health function that makes it important to stimulate tears in this way?
- RockRobotRock 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_eye_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_eye_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schirmer's_test https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schirmer's_test - this test is used in the clinical trials for the device to determine if your eyes produce enough tears
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- felsokning 3y ago> If your device stopped working, it could be because your prescription has expired, and the device has been deactivated. Talk to your doctor about getting another refill prescription for iTEAR®100. Or you can request a telehealth appointment and the company will assign a doctor to you. So, a Prescription is the new Subscription model?
- onewheeltom 3y agohttps://www.djoglobal.com/products/regeneration/ol1000 https://www.djoglobal.com/products/regeneration/ol1000 uses magnetic fields to stimulate bone growth. After the appropriate number of treatments, the device bricks itself
- offsky 3y agoHere is a migraine headache therapy that works on the same principle. https://www.gammacore.com/ https://www.gammacore.com/ It’s really difficult to get prescription and insurance to line up and then they mail you a RFID card that you scan to “refill” the device.