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Why I quit medicine

gautams.posterous.com

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Re: Why I quit medicine

#11

Post by mgkimsal »

wisty wrote: post #4

I see why it's important to have secure patient records. It would be devastating to have your personal medical information up on pastebin. But you know what's worse? Dying because the doctor misses a vital piece of information which can't be found in disorganized paper notes, or a bureaucratically designed medical information system (which set the hospital back roughly the cost of a new life-saving machine).

But... the dying will only happen once, then never affect you again. Leaked medical records may impact you for the rest of your life.

Re: Why I quit medicine

#12

Post by cchurch »

mgkimsal wrote: post #11
wisty wrote: post #4

I see why it's important to have secure patient records. It would be devastating to have your personal medical information up on pastebin. But you know what's worse? Dying because the doctor misses a vital piece of information which can't be found in disorganized paper notes, or a bureaucratically designed medical information system (which set the hospital back roughly the cost of a new life-saving machine).

But... the dying will only happen once, then never affect you again. Leaked medical records may impact you for the rest of your life.

Dying impacts you for the rest of your life.

Re: Why I quit medicine

#13

Post by kyro »

Good on you, man.

I'm in medical school currently and the emphasis on locking down patient data is one of the most frustrating things to see. I'm convinced that it's a policy that everyone knows has little benefit and yet pushes for ethical brownie points. What's to be gained from freeing up the data far, far exceeds what could potentially be lost.

Even freeing up anonymized patient data seems to be met with opposition. Imagine the data analysis that can be done on millions and millions of patient cases and the clinical/treatment models that can emerge as a result.

Medicine right now is an old, stiff wooden board bending under the weight of technological innovation. Something's going to snap and I'm looking forward to see it happen.

I really support what you're doing, and if you want design help, my email is in my profile. Best of luck!

Re: Why I quit medicine

#15

Post by lurker14 »

Is that really why you quit, or an engaging PR backstory?

As an entrepeneur, you'll have to deal with clogged sinks, office rentals, legal filings, and lots of other hassles similar to carrying around a piece of paper.

Re: Why I quit medicine

#16

Post by jerf »

kyro wrote: post #13

Good on you, man. I'm in medical school currently and the emphasis on locking down patient data is one of the most frustrating things to see. I'm convinced that it's a policy that everyone knows has little benefit and yet pushes for ethical brownie points. What's to be gained from freeing up the data far, far exceeds what could potentially be lost. Even freeing up anonymized patient data seems to be met with oppositi…

"Even freeing up anonymized patient data seems to be met with opposition."

Unfortunately, statistically, "anonymous patient data" is an oxymoron. Any useful amount of patient data contain enough information to deanonymize it to a great extent, and in conjunction with other data often fully deanonymize.

http://33bits.org/2010/06/21/myths-and-fallacies-of-personal...

Re: Why I quit medicine

#18

Post by mattwrench »

This article touches on why it somewhat bothers me to see some of my smartest friends applying to med school right now. I'm sure being a doctor is a rewarding profession and the work they do is so incredibly important to their patients--but it's not particularly unique work. Medicine is the application of the already known. (Most med students are not going to be the next DeBakey.) Rather than contributing original work, most doctors seem to be well-paid (and deservingly so) blue collar workers. If someone turns down a med school acceptance, that school can instantly pull 100 names of their waitlist who will be more-or-less just as qualified.

Sivakumar is right in that there aren't many doctors who can also code. While he may not get to feel the joy of directly improving patients lives, this goal of his seems far more important to the well-being of everyone.

Re: Why I quit medicine

#20

Post by wvenable »

rdg wrote: post #5

These guys need to buy this revolutionary product called a notebook. And no, I don't mean a laptop computer, but a "traditional" notebook. And probably a bunch of pens. A notebook is harder to lose than a scrap of paper and you can hand it over to the next doctor so he can read your note and add his own. Sounds interesting, doesn't it?

That doesn't really solve the problem beyond perhaps the most rudimentary way. You have X number of patients and Y number of doctors with any number of overlapping doctors interacting with any of those patients. Keeping doctors notes in a single notebook won't scale beyond a single doctor.
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