Over half of doctors are glorified con-artists. The MO of modern American medicine is to sucker in trusting patients and write prescriptions and perform procedures at great cost that empirically do not work. The doctors are feeling frustrated because the jig is up. There are too many of them and society can't afford the con game anymore.
“Ninety percent of doctors I know are fed up with medicine.”
11–20 of 51 posts
Re: “Ninety percent of doctors I know are fed up with medicine.”
#12This article, while greatly interesting, isn't really hacker news. Unless we're talking about really, really sloppy doctors. Perhaps this would fit better at reddit instead.
Spoken like a person who has never had to answer the question "why are you an engineer when the big money, the prestige, and the long-term career prospects are all in medicine or law"?
Sometimes it's useful to remember that other fields have Dilberts, too.
Re: “Ninety percent of doctors I know are fed up with medicine.”
#13I've worked as an ER nurse for 15 years. I make it a habit to ask MD's that I know whether they would become a doctor if they had to do it all over again, and the vast majority tell me, "No". Adjusted for inflation, MD's salaries haven't gone up for over 20 years, in fact, they've decreased over the past 10 years: http://www.hhnmag.com/hhnmag_app/jsp/articledisplay.jsp?dcrp...
And, if Bush's medicare cuts go through and aren't postponed, many of the good doctors are going to be leaving 12-15 years of schooling behind and looking for a different career.
Re: “Ninety percent of doctors I know are fed up with medicine.”
#14I know of no other field where you intensively train someone for years, then make them do routine paperwork that takes up 25% or more of their time.
Do commercial jet pilots have to sign the purchase order for the jet fuel? That is the equivalent kind of paperwork that doctors have to do.
Re: “Ninety percent of doctors I know are fed up with medicine.”
#15[deleted]
go work for McKinsey or something. Out of the frying pan, into... another frying pan. I have friends who worked for McKinsey, BCG, etc. My observation: High pressure, long hours, continuous travel which eventually drives you crazy. (Travel sounds like fun, until you realize that business travel consists of the insides of hundreds of airports, limos, hotel rooms, and conference rooms and not much else. And it really i…
Consulting: a pie eating contest where the reward is more pie.
Re: “Ninety percent of doctors I know are fed up with medicine.”
#16Over half of doctors are glorified con-artists. The MO of modern American medicine is to sucker in trusting patients and write prescriptions and perform procedures at great cost that empirically do not work. The doctors are feeling frustrated because the jig is up. There are too many of them and society can't afford the con game anymore.
I downvoted because there are a lot of assertions here without sources or context.
My anecdotal experience, where my wife is in the doctor's office routinely due to Hashimoto's disease, is that your mileage may vary. We went to an immunologist who sat on his hands and waited for several months for her thyroid to get enough out of whack before he ordered more testing. We've had several incompetent doctors who failed to diagnose conditions that harmed her health and the health of our son. On the other hand, since we've moved and had to find new doctors, we've gotten some really helpful doctors who really know their business and have been clearing up longstanding immune problems.
The right doctors have really been great for us, the wrong doctors have really been bad.
The first close citation I found for your argument was here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12...
There was a study that most doctors have high standards, but they would fail to report colleagues who didn't meet those standards. However, they appear to claim that reporting would not solve the problem, just lead to its own set of headaches.
I would say that America needs to follow the money to get to the bottom of this problem. The prices of medical care just aren't commensurate with the costs anymore. Ease the financial pressure and the whole system will probably improve.
Re: “Ninety percent of doctors I know are fed up with medicine.”
#17Over half of doctors are glorified con-artists. The MO of modern American medicine is to sucker in trusting patients and write prescriptions and perform procedures at great cost that empirically do not work. The doctors are feeling frustrated because the jig is up. There are too many of them and society can't afford the con game anymore.
I downvoted because there are a lot of assertions here without sources or context. My anecdotal experience, where my wife is in the doctor's office routinely due to Hashimoto's disease, is that your mileage may vary. We went to an immunologist who sat on his hands and waited for several months for her thyroid to get enough out of whack before he ordered more testing. We've had several incompetent doctors who failed t…
> there are a lot of assertions here without sources or context.
I don't have time to build the full case. The nutshell version is that modern medicine is dominated by pharmaceuticals. Doctors are largely in the pill dispensing business. Problem is, the pills don't work. Spend more than fifteen minutes reading about the cholesterol and statin racket for just one example, and this is a huge billion dollar thing. It's a big chunk of what doctors do to earn a living. My familiarity with the business comes from the software side of pharma sales. For another example read about long term efficacy of many kinds of chemo and heart surgery. The stuff just doesn't really work, but it sure costs a lot.
Doctors are something like the fifth leading cause of death. Malpractice is rife.
Modern medicine is great for trauma, injuries, and various acute diseases. But the financial reality of health care is that most of the spending and most of what doctors do is about lifestyle diseases, and the treatments are useless. They give pills and order tons of tests for people who should really just be told that there's nothing to be done other than better diet and exercise, or maybe bed rest. They also blow millions on people who are simply in the process of dying, mostly of old age, and the treatments are empirically known to do nothing.
Re: “Ninety percent of doctors I know are fed up with medicine.”
#18I know of no other field where you intensively train someone for years, then make them do routine paperwork that takes up 25% or more of their time. Do commercial jet pilots have to sign the purchase order for the jet fuel? That is the equivalent kind of paperwork that doctors have to do.
Most of the routine coding, billing, scheduling, and ordering paperwork is done by clerical staff. It's still inefficient, but most physicians aren't doing it themselves.
A lot of the paperwork (or computer work now) that physicians do is for documenting procedures. While that may take up a significant percentage of time (don't know if it's +/- 25%), it's crucial for patient care to have a complete and accurate medical chart.
Re: “Ninety percent of doctors I know are fed up with medicine.”
#19I know of no other field where you intensively train someone for years, then make them do routine paperwork that takes up 25% or more of their time. Do commercial jet pilots have to sign the purchase order for the jet fuel? That is the equivalent kind of paperwork that doctors have to do.
They have a problem, we have an opportunity guys. Help automatise their paperwork and procedures! Nice big market, and clients with deep pockets. Do it right, and it'll spread virally, as they'll recommend your product to their collegues.
Now, I could not tell you in what form and how this automatisation would work. Some standardizing (of data sharing etc) would help too.
And furthermore, you would help them HELP people.
Re: “Ninety percent of doctors I know are fed up with medicine.”
#20I know of no other field where you intensively train someone for years, then make them do routine paperwork that takes up 25% or more of their time. Do commercial jet pilots have to sign the purchase order for the jet fuel? That is the equivalent kind of paperwork that doctors have to do.
They have a problem, we have an opportunity guys. Help automatise their paperwork and procedures! Nice big market, and clients with deep pockets. Do it right, and it'll spread virally, as they'll recommend your product to their collegues. Now, I could not tell you in what form and how this automatisation would work. Some standardizing (of data sharing etc) would help too. And furthermore, you would help them HELP peo…
There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of companies already doing this. If you have a good idea then go ahead and try, but you'll find that the sales cycle is slow, competition is fierce, and the pockets aren't all that deep.
There are a variety of existing standards for data sharing from organizations like HL7, HITSP, IHE, ANSI, NCPDP, etc. The standards work but many vendors don't fully support them yet. And sharing healthcare data means you also have to enable your customers to comply with HIPAA privacy regulations as well as (sometimes) more restrictive state rules.