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I live in an environment where I find it appalling that I need to pay $150 to wait an hour to see the doctor who studies me for thirty seconds and gives me a hi

by delinka 14y ago

I live in an environment where I find it appalling that I need to pay $150 to wait an hour to see the doctor who studies me for thirty seconds and gives me a high-price prescription for a double dose of what I can get over the counter. It's not so much "trust" as it is "should it seriously cost this much?" I personally had a strange episode a few years ago where I just ... felt really awful. But I was lucid the entire time. Wife checked my blood sugar (not a diabetic, but she having been diagnosed with gestational diabetes years ago we have the equipment around) and it was scarily low. Kept hydrated, got some smal bits of food in me, felt better, slept the night with no problems. Called the doctor the next day, they had no interest in seeing me immediately - so they gave me an appointment a few days later. Did some blood work and ... he had no idea what was up. It's never happened again. If I'd gone to the hospital, I'd probably gotten a glucose drip and sent home with a $1,000 bill. So I tend to keep my cool, self-diagnose, watch my kids closely when they're complaining of problems, get medical help when it's necessary. At $150 a visit, I can fix my own sniffles - I'll call the doc when it's doesn't clear up after a few weeks.

nitrogen 14y ago
Yes, there is that factor, too. It's especially an issue when you're striving to be ramen profitable in a bootstrapped company. $150 buys a lot of ramen.
heretohelp 14y ago
I've had similar experiences, one of them even involved low blood sugar like you. I didn't have to test though, had a parent with periods of low blood sugar so I just ate some food and observed myself suddenly feeling drastically better. I don't think we're that far past doctors just being quacks throwing spaghetti at the proverbial wall. They don't seem to be able to, in any given single case, observe/detect/test for much unless there's an associated infection or physical injury.
- jlgreco 14y ago
  As primitive as modern medicine still really is, I think it is important to remember that it is not like engineers with no medical training are actually going to do any better. Yes, you figured out that you had low blood sugar. Doctors would have as well. If that weren't the case, we'd sack all the doctors and hire engineers to fill the hospitals instead. Put it this way: your average highschool geek can program a little. If they put their back into it, it is not unheard of for them to engineer solutions to whatever it is that they are trying to achieve (they are after all rather bright.) On particularly rare occasions, the untrained highschooler can teach himself enough to rival seasoned software developers in a very narrow segment of the field, but will quickly be out of his depth again if the situation changes. I would say the gap between highschool geek and seasoned software developer is somewhat comparable to the gap between engineer and medical doctor (if anything, the comparison gives doctors too little credit.) The difference really is that you are playing with your own health, not some relatively speaking inconsequential software. (This all said, the cost problem is of course very real.)
  - heretohelp 14y ago
    Why does everyone always reduce everything I say on here to a simplistic strawman? I didn't say untrained engineer > doctor I said, untrained engineer > most sundry health problems, doctor > untrained engineer for everything else. Stop wasting peoples' time with strawmen and be more charitable to their intellect.
    - jlgreco 14y ago
      >I don't think we're that far past doctors just being quacks throwing spaghetti at the proverbial wall. They don't seem to be able to, in any given single case, observe/detect/test for much unless there's an associated infection or physical injury. >be more charitable to their intellect. Uh.. ok.
      - heretohelp 14y ago
        I said test for, that doesn't mean their internal pattern matchers aren't good enough for figuring out most things.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
shrikant 14y ago
> I live in an environment where I find it appalling that I need to pay $150 to wait an hour to see the doctor who studies me for thirty seconds and gives me a high-price prescription for a double dose of what I can get over the counter. It's not so much "trust" as it is "should it seriously cost this much?" This is a rather specious argument. If one of the many freelancers on this board were called in to consult on a seemingly intricate technical issue, and they end up just changing a few characters in the source (change a '=' to '==' or correct a typo, for instance) which fixes the problem, would the client be justified in thinking "He changed only 2-3 bytes in the source! Should it seriously cost this much?" on being charged the full engagement rate? It is a classic case of "knowing where to tap". [1] [1] http://p4b.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/knowing-where-to-tap.html http://p4b.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/knowing-where-to-tap.html
- delinka 14y ago
  In my comment, I "know where to tap" and I know what to buy for much less money to get the job done. If I can figure it out, why do I need to hire someone else to do it? "Because," says the medical community, "you should always let your doctor treat you so that he has a complete picture of your health." You call me in on a technical issue that I see you could have handled on your own with a modicum of intelligence and research, I'm certainly going to charge you for it.

by delinka 14y ago

nitrogen 14y ago

Yes, there is that factor, too. It's especially an issue when you're striving to be ramen profitable in a bootstrapped company. $150 buys a lot of ramen.

heretohelp 14y ago

I've had similar experiences, one of them even involved low blood sugar like you. I didn't have to test though, had a parent with periods of low blood sugar so I just ate some food and observed myself suddenly feeling drastically better. I don't think we're that far past doctors just being quacks throwing spaghetti at the proverbial wall. They don't seem to be able to, in any given single case, observe/detect/test for much unless there's an associated infection or physical injury.

jlgreco 14y ago
As primitive as modern medicine still really is, I think it is important to remember that it is not like engineers with no medical training are actually going to do any better. Yes, you figured out that you had low blood sugar. Doctors would have as well. If that weren't the case, we'd sack all the doctors and hire engineers to fill the hospitals instead. Put it this way: your average highschool geek can program a little. If they put their back into it, it is not unheard of for them to engineer solutions to whatever it is that they are trying to achieve (they are after all rather bright.) On particularly rare occasions, the untrained highschooler can teach himself enough to rival seasoned software developers in a very narrow segment of the field, but will quickly be out of his depth again if the situation changes. I would say the gap between highschool geek and seasoned software developer is somewhat comparable to the gap between engineer and medical doctor (if anything, the comparison gives doctors too little credit.) The difference really is that you are playing with your own health, not some relatively speaking inconsequential software. (This all said, the cost problem is of course very real.)
- heretohelp 14y ago
  Why does everyone always reduce everything I say on here to a simplistic strawman? I didn't say untrained engineer > doctor I said, untrained engineer > most sundry health problems, doctor > untrained engineer for everything else. Stop wasting peoples' time with strawmen and be more charitable to their intellect.
  - jlgreco 14y ago
    >I don't think we're that far past doctors just being quacks throwing spaghetti at the proverbial wall. They don't seem to be able to, in any given single case, observe/detect/test for much unless there's an associated infection or physical injury. >be more charitable to their intellect. Uh.. ok.
    - heretohelp 14y ago
      I said test for, that doesn't mean their internal pattern matchers aren't good enough for figuring out most things.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

shrikant 14y ago

> I live in an environment where I find it appalling that I need to pay $150 to wait an hour to see the doctor who studies me for thirty seconds and gives me a high-price prescription for a double dose of what I can get over the counter. It's not so much "trust" as it is "should it seriously cost this much?" This is a rather specious argument. If one of the many freelancers on this board were called in to consult on a seemingly intricate technical issue, and they end up just changing a few characters in the source (change a '=' to '==' or correct a typo, for instance) which fixes the problem, would the client be justified in thinking "He changed only 2-3 bytes in the source! Should it seriously cost this much?" on being charged the full engagement rate? It is a classic case of "knowing where to tap". [1] [1] http://p4b.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/knowing-where-to-tap.html http://p4b.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/knowing-where-to-tap.html

delinka 14y ago
In my comment, I "know where to tap" and I know what to buy for much less money to get the job done. If I can figure it out, why do I need to hire someone else to do it? "Because," says the medical community, "you should always let your doctor treat you so that he has a complete picture of your health." You call me in on a technical issue that I see you could have handled on your own with a modicum of intelligence and research, I'm certainly going to charge you for it.