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I Now Have a Cardiologist

joecieplinski.com

71–80 of 189 posts

Re: I Now Have a Cardiologist

#71

It is odd to me how he keeps describing his $500/month insurance as being useless: he is generally in excellent health and his yearly expenditures are low enough that he is always paying down the deductible. Does he feel car insurance and home insurance are useless since he didn't total his car last year and his house didn't burn down? He knows this (as he mentions it obliquely) that he could lower his deductible but…

> he is generally in excellent health

with heart rate in 120 bpm? to me that is the pretty opposite of "excellent health".

Re: I Now Have a Cardiologist

#72
post #54
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels useless when you know that after paying in $500 a month for decades your insurance could be cancelled for making a claim.

It generally cannot.

It could be previously.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/prescription...

Re: I Now Have a Cardiologist

#73

If you put a popular device, with a medical detection tool into the wider population, it would be logical that the device would pick up on patients who would other not notice the symptoms (at least initially, if any). So then the question becomes what other daily device(s) could be made to do automatic health checks of certain specific indicators, which would give an early indication to the possible condition, thus i…

What about the toilet ... can feces/specimen data be used to catch health issues early on? I know urine can.

The Smart toilet idea has been parodied a lot though and none exist as far as I know. Maybe it’s just not feasible?

Re: I Now Have a Cardiologist

#74

This is the 2nd or 3rd story I've heard like this about the Apple Watch's new ECG feature. I wasn't interested in smartwatches before, but now I am considering getting an Apple Watch, even if it's just for my parents.

Edit: Still not in Canada, though it seems to be in more countries. Very frustrating! Original: I don't think they enable the ECG feature for anyone outside the US. It's locked based on the point of sale last I checked. Very frustrating to buy something so expensive to find out it's been region-locked!

It counts as a medical device, which means it has to go through extensive certification. Different countries have different procedures.

Re: I Now Have a Cardiologist

#75
post #58
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that only people who were born in the US "appreciate" paying this much money for health insurance and see someone criticizing it as being negative. The whole health system in the US is horrible. Nobody should need to go through a middle-man (a.k.a. insurance) in the first place. No wonder prices for everything are absurdly high. Edit: and I have an anecdote about this too. Last year I had an episode of…

Many countries rely on privately-managed health insurers (Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, etc.). > Edit: and I have an anecdote about this too. Last year I had an episode of AFib. I've been taking medication since then. So after almost 1 year taking a certain medication, my insurance rejected it, saying they wouldn't pay for it and that I had to switch to something else. Now, why is it OK for an insurance company…

30K pounds of medical services in the UK would cost you a lot more in the US, so it's hard to compare the two just by comparing those limits.

Re: I Now Have a Cardiologist

#76
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A toilet that monitored urine and stool samples would be a major lifesaver.

This strikes me as an exceptionally difficult problem to solve. I'll be impressed if someone brings a workable solution to market in any reasonable time-frame. I guess if you can retrain people in how they use their toilet, you might be able to simplify some of the challenges, but many people use their toilet as a generalized soft/liquid garbage can.

Well that’s just it the UX of using a toilet would remain the same and the smart toilet wpuld collect the sample(as a toilet does now)/analyze it and send the data if it detects irregularities to your doctor. He/she then analyzes it and schedules a follow up appointment if needed.

Re: I Now Have a Cardiologist

#77
I have had a couple instances of ventricular fibrillation. I have an implant which brings me back to life when that happens; I would be dead without it. However, I do go unconscious for a few seconds until I get shocked back to life.

Although my case is infrequent enough that it is not thought of as a risk by the medical community, for peace of mind what I would really like to have is a link between a watch of some sort and a car capable of self driving. Should I be driving when I go unconscious, all the car would need to do is automatically kick in autopilot mode while gradually slowing down, until a heart rhythm is detected again.

The risk is small, if you consider the percentage of time I'm behind the wheel, but it would be good for peace of mind. It would also be helpful for others who do not yet know they have a heart condition, or those who are having a stroke or epileptic attack while at the wheel. There are others with worse conditions than mine who are basically advised not to drive, so it would help them as well.

If falling asleep can be detected by any biological signals, that would also be a useful autopilot trigger while waking the driver up, for the general population.

Currently most cars require manually activating the autopilot mode; what I'm proposing is a vital sign monitor to automatically begin self-driving if the human is incapacitated.

If the human doesn't wake up within a half a minute or so, the car could also self-drive itself to a hospital. I think we're far enough with self-driving tech that that saved life would far outweigh the risks of the self-driving system having any issues en route.

Re: I Now Have a Cardiologist

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This strikes me as an exceptionally difficult problem to solve. I'll be impressed if someone brings a workable solution to market in any reasonable time-frame. I guess if you can retrain people in how they use their toilet, you might be able to simplify some of the challenges, but many people use their toilet as a generalized soft/liquid garbage can.

Well that’s just it the UX of using a toilet would remain the same and the smart toilet wpuld collect the sample(as a toilet does now)/analyze it and send the data if it detects irregularities to your doctor. He/she then analyzes it and schedules a follow up appointment if needed.

Keeping the user experience the same — I suspect — will be excessively difficult

Re: I Now Have a Cardiologist

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But...most doctors don't give ECGs at physicals?

Worth inquiring about the add-on price for it, then. I also add a skin-cancer check with a dermatologist to my yearly check-up as I'm very high risk.

Still bad advice when you examine the tradeoffs. 1 ecg per year, with a yearly recurring cost, vs a cheaper watch that lets you take 20 ecg’s a day if you want to for the rest of the watch’s lifespan.

Remember it’s possible to not be in constant afib. That’s where the watch really shines.

Re: I Now Have a Cardiologist

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that’s just it the UX of using a toilet would remain the same and the smart toilet wpuld collect the sample(as a toilet does now)/analyze it and send the data if it detects irregularities to your doctor. He/she then analyzes it and schedules a follow up appointment if needed.

Keeping the user experience the same — I suspect — will be excessively difficult

How so you use the toilet as you always would and everything is done automatically by the smart toilet.
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