81–90 of 438 posts
The biggest problem with Google and medicine are the summary boxes and QA widgets up top, matching a search term to an excerpt. It's hilariously bad, it pulls misleading info out of context. It is probably responsible for more than zero deaths worldwide.
> In the pre-Szaszian era, medicine was something that happened to you. You would put your health in your doctor's hands and they would unilaterally decide your course of treatment. But in today's patient-centered world, doctors are more like consultants To be honest I've only seen this level of "patient-centered" stuff in the US. Never heard the phrase "Ask your doctor about xy" anywhere but on US TV. Sometimes pret…
> WTF, shouldn't the doctor tell you what you need and not the other way around? The problem here is that it is the medical professional who is pushing the ineffective treatment.
I would appreciate if google could elevate more “google scholar” results and also have a zone of clearly marked “likely low quality matches” but apart from the howls of outrage from the bullshitters, this would be very hard.
Also note at the end the author pitches their alternative.
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BTW the laser is a capital investment (or lease) for the provider so the laser manufacturers are always coming up with new ways to use the device and sending them to their customers (mainly dermatologists and dentists — people outside the managed care, and often insurance, infrastructures). These suggestions are typically worded in a way that doesn’t get them in trouble with the FDA.
So even if a dermatologist buys a laser to remove birthmarks, most of the time it will just sit unused in the corner of the room. So they add tattoo removal. Next thing you know it’s a cosmetic liposuction alternative for the area around your mouth.
Why are dentists so scammy? In Norway I've seen documentaries about them sending the same people to multiple dentists, and some of them receive wildly different advice. Some of that can be ascribed to some being in the school of pro-active, so they want to fix your teeth at the first glance of issues. But in the end, most of the things being quoted were unnecessary. They all seemed very intent on removing wisdom teet…
I went to a new dentist for a broken filling and they tried to tell me I had 14 cavities and set me down with a finance person to set up a payment plan for how I was going to pay for them over the next 5 years. I went to a second dentist, they fixed the broken filling and said my teeth were otherwise fine. I have the paperwork to back this up. I’d been seeing another dentist for a while and he suddenly wanted to crow…
I had similar experience as others - one guy wanted to set series of visits (4 hours each) to remove all older fillings. He was doing a fine work otherwise (replacing urgently one that started breaking apart). The detail being, he didn't do an X-ray to check if older fillings actually needed replacement (the idea is, your teeth can handle only few filling replacements depending on situation, so definitely don't fix things that aren't broken).
After that (and few months), went to another dentist who first did full x-ray, found that one filling needed replacement and the rest were fine and I ended up paying 5% of the price of first one. Good dentists are worth gold (same as many other professions for that matter) - if you find a skilled professional who is not ripping you off, you stay there till you die. This quality mix is unfortunately not easy to find.
“ Medicine has become a three-way negotiation between you, your doctor, and The Algorithm.” This characterization makes it sound like a good thing. In reality, the doctor’s responsibility is being pushed to the patient because they are overbooked in the name of economic efficiency. As a patient with complex, non-specific medical condition, I can tell you how miserable this is. I can’t count on doctors _at all_ to mov…
I agree we should be able to rely on them more, but the point is to get a better outcome, and to do that, being an active participant in your treatment is a great option.
Why are dentists so scammy? In Norway I've seen documentaries about them sending the same people to multiple dentists, and some of them receive wildly different advice. Some of that can be ascribed to some being in the school of pro-active, so they want to fix your teeth at the first glance of issues. But in the end, most of the things being quoted were unnecessary. They all seemed very intent on removing wisdom teet…
Teeth looks fine and healthy, not much tartar to clean. When was the last time you visited?
Two years ago.
Oh no you should visit at least twice a year (?). Even if all looks fine x-ray is recommended which can reveal some things.
I do the x-ray. All is fine. You don't even have upper wisdom teeth. Lower wisdom teeth are at 90deg so they can pose a risk if they started growing.
Yeah, but I am 40 years old already? My mother is 70 and has the same 90deg wisdom teeth, never started growing?
TBH it really starts to feel "scammy" when they start suggesting procedures for things that might never happen.
I look forward to the day when AI is sophisticated enough to take medical decisions out of the hands of fallible and emotional human beings. (We're not anywhere close to that day)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would personally rather be involved in the decision making process related to my very existence rather than just told what to do.
I "feel" like I would like that as well. But if I every get really ill with something longterm, I'm also afraid I'd spend too much energy on all the decisions and research. Giving patients options also gives them doubts.
My preference is for the one who I think is being honest with me about how certain they are about what's going on, and when a medical professional seems like they want to appear 100% certain all the time it makes me worry about their judgement.
I think many people have the opposite preference, which seems to me is asking for dishonesty. Seems like an ethically tricky area.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I went to the same dentist for years as a child. Brushed my teeth once a day, never had any issues at all. All of sudden, during a regular checkup, he told my parents (I was ~15 at the time) that I had 9 cavities and needed fillings. In the 20 years since, I have never had a single cavity. And what a shock, he sold his practice between that procedure and my next checkup. I fully believe he was just pumping up his rev…
> as opposed to chiropractors, who are universally charlatans and frauds I take it you've never thrown your back out and had an adjustment that fixed a lot of pain?
A physical therapist can help you with that long-term back pain you got.
> In the pre-Szaszian era, medicine was something that happened to you. You would put your health in your doctor's hands and they would unilaterally decide your course of treatment. But in today's patient-centered world, doctors are more like consultants To be honest I've only seen this level of "patient-centered" stuff in the US. Never heard the phrase "Ask your doctor about xy" anywhere but on US TV. Sometimes pret…
I think it's because the US is one of the few (only??) countries to allow advertisements for prescription drugs.
I know the meme de jour is teens diagnosing themselves with ADHD because of TikTok but it's the perfect example of a whole bunch of people being like "holy shit it's not supposed to be this hard all the time? You can actually do something about it?"