Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option • Hacker News Board

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#91

Post by markdown » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 11:02 PM UTC

atdrummond wrote: post #47

google234123 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We also now know that those treatments kill people and users gain dependence and tolerance to opioids. It’s more than just protecting their medical license.

The proportion of patients who become addicted from properly prescribed opioids is extremely small. The majority of addicts created were provided with opioids that were not appropriate for their particular medical situation, in doses that were too high, and on a regimen that exceeded in length what was supported by the medical evidence. The proportion of new cancer patients who go on to receive palliative care that i…

> properly prescribed opioids

They were incentivised to not properly prescribe opioids. Don't be so quick to let the doctors off the hook. They're pleading ignorance isn't going to work. These were highly intelligent people who knew what they were doing and did it anyway in exchange for bribes from "Big Pharma".

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#92

Post by batch12 » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 11:03 PM UTC

johndfsgdgdfg wrote: post #83

In US ALL doctors have to be trained in Spanish so that they can serve the hispanic population. This type of systemic racism against hispanics shouldn't be tolerated and we need put an end to it.

The article doesn't mention this as an issue? Actually, for Spanish it indicates the opposite.

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#93

Post by trimbo » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 11:07 PM UTC

slackfan wrote: post #32

brianwawok wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> By 2028, it is expected that health care spending in the U.S. will reach nearly one fifth of the nation's gross domestic product It is a balance of features vs price. Right now, we need to do absolutely everything we can to keep the price of medical care as low as possible. In the US it might make sense for most hospitals to have people on staff for Spanish. I don't think we as a country can afford 270 other langua…

Bluntly speaking, this is not a problem that tech can solve. Because nothing, no video calls, no vr, no phone calls, can replace an on-site professional. There are approximately top 10 languages you want to have staff for, and then the rest can be handled by contractors. But you have to remember that most "staff" are actually 1099 contractors now because they can be paid submarket wages that way. Thanks, monopolies.

> Bluntly speaking, this is not a problem that tech can solve. Because nothing, no video calls, no vr, no phone calls, can replace an on-site professional.

AFAICT, over the past 150+ years, a qualitative argument like this is made every time a skilled job can be replaced by automation, but the automation wins anyway. The automation quality ends up improving to the point where the economics are inescapable.

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#94

Post by throwaway684936 » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 11:08 PM UTC

atdrummond wrote: post #17

freedomben wrote: post #2

I can't imagine being a patient in pain trying to communicate that to a doctor who didn't speak the same language, especially when the pain was due to a different issue (as the article describes). The pendulum has fully swung from "pain is a vital sign" to "suck it up" and "anyone who complains about pain is a liar or a drug seeker unless they're older than 65 or have a visible external wound."[1] It's difficult even…

It has become an absolute joke. I have had 6 surgeries for Crohns, a back surgery due to wear and tear from high level athletics, and am a long term sufferer of an aggressive leukaemia. Despite using opioids responsibly for over a decade, I am regarded as nothing more than a drug seeking pest the very few times I have actively sought pain relief during in-patient hospital stays. Prior to being dropped entirely from m…

No post body was provided.

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#95

Post by detaro » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 11:10 PM UTC

LAC-Tech wrote: post #88

jspash wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently went to Poland for a quick 2 day holiday. Felt great before I left. Felt great while I was there. Tested positive for covid the morning I was supposed to fly home. Fast forward a bit and I'm in the back of an ambulance while my partner was on the plane back home. They put me up in a hotel for 10 days. Fed me 3 times a day. Checked on me twice a day. And on day 10, opened the door and I was on my own. How I…

Right, but if you decided to move to Poland - you'd realise you probably need to speak Polish, right?

Since you started by suggesting hospitals don't need this capability: So because one reason why people might turn up at a hospital not speaking the language isn't "valid" in your eyes, hospitals shouldn't prepare for any people that don't speak the language?

(And your example, Poland, has a pretty big influx of people right now who had different priorities than ensuring they speak the language first)

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#96

Post by Scoundreller » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 11:10 PM UTC

Cd00d wrote: post #10

munk-a wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My SO had to seek medical attention in rural southern France (we were visiting Carcassone) - she initially sought care at the local emerg where there was not a translator available, she speaks high-school french but most of the conversation was carried out through miming and charades. A few days later, as instructed, she followed up with a local clinic where she prepared a written version of her condition and brought…

I had experience with the charades act. Got food poisoning or a stomach bug in Sofia, Bulgaria and had to act out vomiting and diarrhea at the chemists desk. Eventually they got the drift, opened a box of pills and gave me a sheet of them with no further instruction. I think I could have been successful if I knew some French, but alas, I opted for Spanish in high school. At the time it seemed Bulgarians over a certai…

> Eventually they got the drift, opened a box of pills and gave me a sheet of them with no further instruction.

This isn't too far off how prescriptions work in many places in europe, east or west. If you're lucky, they'll hand-write instructions on the box (that are incomprehensible to me).

For added confusion, the chemists don't count pills/break packages. So if your order is for 7 doses, but they come in boxes of 5, you'll get 10 doses.

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#97

Post by tyre » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 11:12 PM UTC

bena wrote: post #73

sjtindell wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My partner has used an EMR called Epic in her work and it, like all EMRs it seems, is trash. Government protections and a moat of network effects, they’re untouchable.

EMR software, like all medical software, suffers from a variation of the Dead Sea Effect. Those who are truly invested in EMR software are not developers and developers are not invested in EMR software. So, as a developer, it's a job you take because you need a job. And if you're competent, you can get a job elsewhere eventually. If you're not, well, it's not like medical software has a deep talent pool to draw from.…

> developers are not invested in EMR software

I know a handful of companies that went through YC trying to build EMR software and have met many more people since who are interested in this problem. It is not a lack of interest from engineers.

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#98

Post by LAC-Tech » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 11:17 PM UTC

detaro wrote: post #95

LAC-Tech wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but if you decided to move to Poland - you'd realise you probably need to speak Polish, right?

Since you started by suggesting hospitals don't need this capability: So because one reason why people might turn up at a hospital not speaking the language isn't "valid" in your eyes, hospitals shouldn't prepare for any people that don't speak the language? (And your example, Poland, has a pretty big influx of people right now who had different priorities than ensuring they speak the language first)

What a weirdly hostile response. Not only are you wielding scare quotes against me, but they're not even words I used - not once did I say "valid".

HN really is a stifling place whenever the discussion veers anywhere close to politics. I give up, you win.

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#99

Post by charcircuit » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 11:34 PM UTC

johndfsgdgdfg wrote: post #83

In US ALL doctors have to be trained in Spanish so that they can serve the hispanic population. This type of systemic racism against hispanics shouldn't be tolerated and we need put an end to it.

A doctor not knowing every language on earth is not racism. Learning a language takes a significant amount of time / money.

Re: Doctors who use Google Translate to talk to patients want a better option

#100

Post by joeman1000 » Thu, Mar 17, 2022, 11:36 PM UTC

Why are translation services the issue here? Why isn’t the issue: non-English speakers allowed to practice medicine on people without being able to talk to them. I’m seriously fed up with this nonsense. If I’m moving to a country, I’m learning the damned language. Reply to me if you want to talk to someone who endured 5 years of university education delivered incoherently by non-English speakers. I wasted lots of money on poor education, but there are people dying because their doctor doesn’t even have to speak the same language as them in their own country. When did this become acceptable? How is this not gross negligence?