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The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

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Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#71

Post by mvanlonden »

the_d3f4ult wrote: post #62

Being a physician is a horrible career move right now. As a former Math/CS major turned eye surgeon, I can't help but think about how much easier my life would be had I stuck with tech. It's hard to understand exactly how hard the job is until you've lived it. I saw 40 patient's in clinic today in 8 hours without lunch or any kind of downtime and then spent 2 hours at the hospital because a patient needed an emergent…

We’re hiring founding engineers at Develop Health! https://jobs.lever.co/develophealth.io?utm_source=hackernews...

Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#72

Post by xvedejas »

the_d3f4ult wrote: post #62

Being a physician is a horrible career move right now. As a former Math/CS major turned eye surgeon, I can't help but think about how much easier my life would be had I stuck with tech. It's hard to understand exactly how hard the job is until you've lived it. I saw 40 patient's in clinic today in 8 hours without lunch or any kind of downtime and then spent 2 hours at the hospital because a patient needed an emergent…

The biggest complaint I always hear from people in the medical field is the long hours. It sure sounds to me like that (and thus any knock-on problems) could be solved by more practitioners, spreading the work around. I can't speak for you, but personally, a proper work-life balance in comparison to these horror stories is surely worth a possible salary cut?

Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#73

Post by ch4s3 »

Tanjreeve wrote: post #67
ch4s3 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cuba actually has a terrible health system that lacks even basic medical supplies like aspirin and antibiotics[1]. The state department and in the past MSF have called their medical missions modern day slavery[2][3]. There are also a lot of questions about the quality of Cuban medical training[4]. [1] https://cuba.miami.edu/business-economy/a-close-look-at-cuba... [2] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cuba-traff…

The first three articles are various flavours of FUD and vague assertions of coercion of the usual kind of "flood the field" BS everyone is used to from MSM. The fourth link you provided "asks questions" but then the actual conclusion is that their trainings fine and people are spouting FUD and they'll need some extra focus on country specific problems. """ Results South African students trained in Cuba have had bene…

Really because the Cuban state bio pharmaceutical industry items at least a 40% shortage in medical supplies[1](I hope you read Spanish). Here’s another from Univision[2]. I could dig through the state news and find where they say the same thing but I have limited patience for stalinist ramblings.

As for the training, I did only cite one study. But I know doctors who have worked along side Cuban doctors in Africa through MSF, and they’re according to multiple people I’ve spoken with very poorly trained. The medical missions are also as I pointed out basically slavery.

[1] https://diariodecuba.com/cuba/1658314405_41049.html

[2] https://www.univision.com/amp/local/miami-wltv/falta-medicam...

Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#74

Post by SongofEarth »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #63
the_d3f4ult wrote: post #62

Being a physician is a horrible career move right now. As a former Math/CS major turned eye surgeon, I can't help but think about how much easier my life would be had I stuck with tech. It's hard to understand exactly how hard the job is until you've lived it. I saw 40 patient's in clinic today in 8 hours without lunch or any kind of downtime and then spent 2 hours at the hospital because a patient needed an emergent…

> That said, is anyone hiring an ophthalmologist with CS and Math degrees? I’m surprised you can’t leverage this into a product role or a consulting role for startups in the medical space. You know shit about med systems!!

It can be really hard to leverage this combination of skills, the demand for cross-discipline talents is usually much lower than for a single skill set, but also much deeper when the demand exists, it's going to take some serious searching to find a match but likely it's worth it. There was HN post about working with radiologists when building a AI diagnosis company:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36111596

May be try talk to some similar AI companies is a good idea, at this time the pay can be really good.

Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#75

Post by smarmgoblin »

the_d3f4ult wrote: post #62

Being a physician is a horrible career move right now. As a former Math/CS major turned eye surgeon, I can't help but think about how much easier my life would be had I stuck with tech. It's hard to understand exactly how hard the job is until you've lived it. I saw 40 patient's in clinic today in 8 hours without lunch or any kind of downtime and then spent 2 hours at the hospital because a patient needed an emergent…

I dropped out of an MD/PhD program after I passed Step 1, it’s hard to articulate exactly how it felt staring down the barrel of a career in medicine but this is sort of what I feared.

Since I’ve been in tech I’ve been laid off several times, and it’s not clear that compensation or demand will always be as hot as it is right now. I’m not complaining but if you take any satisfaction in actually helping people, there’s a real possibility you won’t find that anymore.

That said, you have options. If you’re willing to work at a junior or mid-level role, companies probably won’t care much what you did before. Maybe wait til the next boom in hiring happens, jump on the hype train. With your technical skills there’s probably some very unique research roles you could fill if you’re interested in that lifestyle — although the compensation is not super appealing. If it doesn’t work out, I feel like you could go back to surgery right?

Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#76

Post by lostlogin »

the_d3f4ult wrote: post #62

Being a physician is a horrible career move right now. As a former Math/CS major turned eye surgeon, I can't help but think about how much easier my life would be had I stuck with tech. It's hard to understand exactly how hard the job is until you've lived it. I saw 40 patient's in clinic today in 8 hours without lunch or any kind of downtime and then spent 2 hours at the hospital because a patient needed an emergent…

I know an eye surgeon who wrote a piece of software that streamlined the referral process for cataract surgery.

It’s a seriously big deal in his world.

When domain experts write make their own tools, the results are so much better than when an outsider does it for them.

Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#77

Post by lostlogin »

xvedejas wrote: post #72
the_d3f4ult wrote: post #62

Being a physician is a horrible career move right now. As a former Math/CS major turned eye surgeon, I can't help but think about how much easier my life would be had I stuck with tech. It's hard to understand exactly how hard the job is until you've lived it. I saw 40 patient's in clinic today in 8 hours without lunch or any kind of downtime and then spent 2 hours at the hospital because a patient needed an emergent…

The biggest complaint I always hear from people in the medical field is the long hours. It sure sounds to me like that (and thus any knock-on problems) could be solved by more practitioners, spreading the work around. I can't speak for you, but personally, a proper work-life balance in comparison to these horror stories is surely worth a possible salary cut?

> It sure sounds to me like that (and thus any knock-on problems) could be solved by more practitioners, spreading the work around.

Sort of. The equipment is so expensive that the actual solution is usually to work the rooms and equipment harder. Night shifts, early starts and evening work are actually shit.

Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#78

Post by lr1970 »

scythe wrote: post #35
bruce511 wrote: post #6

Planning and predicting highly variable systems is hard. Long-range interventions are especially risky given the possibilities for unexpected consequences and also the long lead times in fixing the problems. Central planning on resources has been especially rife with failed examples (the USSR being the all-in poster child.) As the article points out, the concept of central planning is orthogonal to who is providing t…

>Central planning on resources has been especially rife with failed examples (the USSR being the all-in poster child.) This assertion is greatly exaggerated. It's certainly true that the centrally planned economy of the USSR didn't grow as quickly as peer countries with similar levels of economic development. The typical contrast is the much faster growth of Japan versus the Soviet Union in the late twentieth century…

> But the Soviet Union nonetheless grew. Its growth rate was similar to that of the United States, but starting from a lower level (missing out on catch-up growth). ... Even though the system was not efficient, it wasn't disastrous by itself, only suboptimal.

I am sorry but it is total BS. I grew up in late USSR and can attest that its economy was in free fall. Central planning was one big demotivator and major contributor to the economic disastor. There were no incentives whatsoever to do your job well. Social mobility, career growth depended on factors outside of your direct control. Productivity was a fraction of what it was in the West. Bottom line -- any attempt on economic central planning first has to solve the problem of motivating productivity of human free agents. Otherwise it will fail in a similar way as Soviet Union did.

Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#79

Post by toast0 »

ch4s3 wrote: post #52
whitemary wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Communist" Cuba has 64 physicians per 10K population, which is 2nd in the entire world for physicians per capita. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_depend... During the pandemic, they were sending droves of doctors to Europe. They offered to assist in NYC but Trump turned them away as our population dwindled. Famously, when a British cruise ship with ill passengers aboard was denied by ports in F…

I'm not sure how they could have assisted with anything, they basically have no medical supplies[1][2][3][4]. And before you bring it up, no medical supplies aren't covered by the embargo, they get a special exemption since the 90s. [1] https://havanatimes.org/cuba/medicine-shortages-a-challenge-... [2] https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/cuban-diaspora-sends-... [3] https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/south-african…

There was a time where supplies was the issue, and I doubt Cuba could help there. But there was also a time when medical labor was the issue, and Cuban doctors could have helped with that.

Re: The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)

#80

Post by whimsicalism »

lostlogin wrote: post #77
xvedejas wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest complaint I always hear from people in the medical field is the long hours. It sure sounds to me like that (and thus any knock-on problems) could be solved by more practitioners, spreading the work around. I can't speak for you, but personally, a proper work-life balance in comparison to these horror stories is surely worth a possible salary cut?

> It sure sounds to me like that (and thus any knock-on problems) could be solved by more practitioners, spreading the work around. Sort of. The equipment is so expensive that the actual solution is usually to work the rooms and equipment harder. Night shifts, early starts and evening work are actually shit.

That makes no sense, if the capital is expensive then you should hire more labor.
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