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Up to 25% of women have endo, in some communities at least. We need more doctors. The nation has grown, our medical professionals and courts must scale up. Aut

Up to 25% of women have endo, in some communities at least. We need more doctors. The nation has grown, our medical professionals and courts must scale up. Automation isn't going to solve everything.

kulahan 1y ago
We need more of all healthcare professionals. Nurses and CNAs are getting run ragged just the same.
- verisimi 1y ago
  Have you heard of Iatrogenesis? https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iatrogenesis https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iatrogenesis > In 2013, an estimated 142,000 persons died from adverse effects of medical treatment, up from an estimated 94,000 in 1990. Careful what you wish for! And, imo, an awful lot of deaths are due to issues that cannot be classified as caused by doctors - eg dosage error over time, something that mitigates symptoms but allows the underlying to deteriorate, etc.
  - jmcgough 1y ago
    Most premature death in this country is from chronic disease. It's nearly impossible to get a PCP in many parts of the country. Gastroenterology is like a four month wait here.
  - kulahan 1y ago
    I’m very ready to have a conversation about whether or not there is a point where we should stop advancing healthcare because people probably shouldn’t be immortal, but doing it by making your healthcare workers struggle under the extreme weight of all the patients they need to care for probably is not the approach. I simply don’t think we have the medical knowledge necessary yet to know what the “right” number of health care professionals is.
chongli 1y ago
We need more doctors. Yes, unfortunately we've made doctors the gatekeepers and they don't want more doctors because that will eat into their income. This happens with every single licensed occupation where the license body is run by members of the occupation, with the possible exception of bar associations. My theory on that one is that the more lawyers you have in society the more lawyers you need because lawyers do a great job creating work for one another (both through litigation but also through legal documentation which needs to be read and interpreted by other lawyers).
- giantg2 1y ago
  The vast majority of doctors support increasing the number of doctors. Most doctors are not members of the AMA and many disagree with their positions on many subjects. The main issue with the shortage is the lack of funding for residencies that is mostly paid for by Medicare and grants. Medical schools don't want to increase the number of students if they won't have slots to finish their training to become doctors. The limits you're talking about are comparatively minor issues as the limits imposed on MDs have led to more DOs. And what nobody wants to talk about are the thousands of slots that go to international medical students, the majority of which do not stay after training. They currently have a senate bill to increase funding and incentivize the most needed specialties (GP and psych). We'll see how that goes. At this point, it feels like interest in being a doctor has diminished - there's too much training, many specialties don't pay well enough to justify the delayed earnings and costs, the hours can be miserable, and it's a nightmare to deal with all the regulations and legal aspects.
  - chongli 1y ago
    The main issue with the shortage is the lack of funding for residencies No, that’s the proximate issue. The main issue is the requirement of residencies for all doctors in the first place. In particular, I’m referring to doctors from other countries who may have years or even decades of experience practicing medicine being required to compete for residency spots. These doctors infamously end up driving for Uber instead of practicing medicine.
compiler_queen 1y ago
[dead]
voxl 1y ago
In my opinion we need to elevate doctors and invest heavily into more nurse practitioners and the like. I don't think you need to see a doctor all the time, for procedures or surgery yes, or if you need someone to actually investigate something. But there is no point in pretending doctors are going to surge, the current administration is trying to make being a doctor harder, not easier. Doctors also avoid certain fields because it doesn't pay enough. The supply is also artificially restricted. It's a system so fucked that it's better to ignore it and pump out PRNs
ACCount36 1y ago
At this rate, it might be easier to train ChatGPT for better diagnostics performance and give it access to health records than to untangle decades worth of legislative and institutional inertia that prevents "more doctors".
- dirtyhippiefree 1y ago
  AI hallucinating an art project is one thing…but medicine…?!? Heaven help us.
a_bonobo 1y ago
>Up to 25% of women have endo, in some communities at least. I feel like that's a relatively novel insight. These days I hear about endometriosis once a month or so, mostly because of outspoken women advocates. I could swear I've never heard of endo before 2020. As an example, the Australian National Action Plan for endometriosis is from 2018. Perhaps the currently practising generation of doctors did not have this kind of awareness during their training, and the next generation will fix it?
- jmcgough 1y ago
  I think because it's seen as gyn health (though endometriosis can occur in men in rare cases), people often don't feel comfortable talking about it. Relatedly, pregnancy complications weren't really on my radar until I started working in the emergency department and discovered just how common they are.
giantg2 1y ago
The studies are wild. The reported range of affected individuals is 2-50% depending on which study you look at. While genetics are the main risk factor, there are all sorts of environmental risk factors that have been linked to it, especially in uetero. Many of those things are highly common such as BPA, PFAS, dioxins, and cosmetic use.

Up to 25% of women have endo, in some communities at least. We need more doctors. The nation has grown, our medical professionals and courts must scale up. Automation isn't going to solve everything.

kulahan 1y ago

We need more of all healthcare professionals. Nurses and CNAs are getting run ragged just the same.

verisimi 1y ago
Have you heard of Iatrogenesis? https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iatrogenesis https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iatrogenesis > In 2013, an estimated 142,000 persons died from adverse effects of medical treatment, up from an estimated 94,000 in 1990. Careful what you wish for! And, imo, an awful lot of deaths are due to issues that cannot be classified as caused by doctors - eg dosage error over time, something that mitigates symptoms but allows the underlying to deteriorate, etc.
- jmcgough 1y ago
  Most premature death in this country is from chronic disease. It's nearly impossible to get a PCP in many parts of the country. Gastroenterology is like a four month wait here.
- kulahan 1y ago
  I’m very ready to have a conversation about whether or not there is a point where we should stop advancing healthcare because people probably shouldn’t be immortal, but doing it by making your healthcare workers struggle under the extreme weight of all the patients they need to care for probably is not the approach. I simply don’t think we have the medical knowledge necessary yet to know what the “right” number of health care professionals is.

chongli 1y ago

We need more doctors. Yes, unfortunately we've made doctors the gatekeepers and they don't want more doctors because that will eat into their income. This happens with every single licensed occupation where the license body is run by members of the occupation, with the possible exception of bar associations. My theory on that one is that the more lawyers you have in society the more lawyers you need because lawyers do a great job creating work for one another (both through litigation but also through legal documentation which needs to be read and interpreted by other lawyers).

giantg2 1y ago
The vast majority of doctors support increasing the number of doctors. Most doctors are not members of the AMA and many disagree with their positions on many subjects. The main issue with the shortage is the lack of funding for residencies that is mostly paid for by Medicare and grants. Medical schools don't want to increase the number of students if they won't have slots to finish their training to become doctors. The limits you're talking about are comparatively minor issues as the limits imposed on MDs have led to more DOs. And what nobody wants to talk about are the thousands of slots that go to international medical students, the majority of which do not stay after training. They currently have a senate bill to increase funding and incentivize the most needed specialties (GP and psych). We'll see how that goes. At this point, it feels like interest in being a doctor has diminished - there's too much training, many specialties don't pay well enough to justify the delayed earnings and costs, the hours can be miserable, and it's a nightmare to deal with all the regulations and legal aspects.
- chongli 1y ago
  The main issue with the shortage is the lack of funding for residencies No, that’s the proximate issue. The main issue is the requirement of residencies for all doctors in the first place. In particular, I’m referring to doctors from other countries who may have years or even decades of experience practicing medicine being required to compete for residency spots. These doctors infamously end up driving for Uber instead of practicing medicine.

compiler_queen 1y ago

[dead]

voxl 1y ago

In my opinion we need to elevate doctors and invest heavily into more nurse practitioners and the like. I don't think you need to see a doctor all the time, for procedures or surgery yes, or if you need someone to actually investigate something. But there is no point in pretending doctors are going to surge, the current administration is trying to make being a doctor harder, not easier. Doctors also avoid certain fields because it doesn't pay enough. The supply is also artificially restricted. It's a system so fucked that it's better to ignore it and pump out PRNs

ACCount36 1y ago

At this rate, it might be easier to train ChatGPT for better diagnostics performance and give it access to health records than to untangle decades worth of legislative and institutional inertia that prevents "more doctors".

dirtyhippiefree 1y ago
AI hallucinating an art project is one thing…but medicine…?!? Heaven help us.

a_bonobo 1y ago

>Up to 25% of women have endo, in some communities at least. I feel like that's a relatively novel insight. These days I hear about endometriosis once a month or so, mostly because of outspoken women advocates. I could swear I've never heard of endo before 2020. As an example, the Australian National Action Plan for endometriosis is from 2018. Perhaps the currently practising generation of doctors did not have this kind of awareness during their training, and the next generation will fix it?

jmcgough 1y ago
I think because it's seen as gyn health (though endometriosis can occur in men in rare cases), people often don't feel comfortable talking about it. Relatedly, pregnancy complications weren't really on my radar until I started working in the emergency department and discovered just how common they are.

giantg2 1y ago

The studies are wild. The reported range of affected individuals is 2-50% depending on which study you look at. While genetics are the main risk factor, there are all sorts of environmental risk factors that have been linked to it, especially in uetero. Many of those things are highly common such as BPA, PFAS, dioxins, and cosmetic use.