3 ms·
Not much replaces a physical examination with the physician or nurse present. Serious complications can be quite subtle that unless you answer questions, they
by refurb 2y ago
Not much replaces a physical examination with the physician or nurse present.
Serious complications can be quite subtle that unless you answer questions, they may be missed. Having someone come in, listen to your heart and lungs, ask a few questions can't really be replaced with machines.
- derefr 2y agoI accept the answering-questions part — but it might be just barely possible today to build an "automatic stethoscope" machine, that sits there continuously listening to your heart and lungs, feeding the audio through an ML model, and alerting if it "hears" anything odd, no? (It wouldn't even need to know what the odd thing represents; just that it's out-of-expectation enough to require someone to come over and check on you! A bit like asking a family's child to watch grandma while you speak to the mom and dad. All you want the child to do, is to freak out and get your attention if grandma does anything other than what she was already doing!)
- sangnoir 2y agoA smart stethoscope won't monitor consciousness and lucidity, which are vital signals.
- derefr 2y agoOkay? I already said "I accept the answering-questions part." Doctors not having to manually probe any signs of heart/lung problems each time they're in the room, would mean that they get either get more time to test each patient for consciousness/lucidity; get time to check on more patients; or (my preferred option) are able to make each check-session shorter and less invasive (no need to sit the patient up to listen to their lungs through their back, for example), and thus less disturbing of a patient's sleep quality (because it's easier to go back to sleep after a short conversation, when you haven't had your blood pressure spike from sitting up.)