Is there a tech version of "not in my backyard"? Like, "I support the idea but I'm sure as hell not going first"?
Robot dentist performs first human procedure
91–100 of 381 posts
Re: Robot dentist performs first human procedure
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most docs are overworked for many, mostly bad reasons. Clinical overload is one thing, but healthcare is more like drowning in admin work, these days. So mostly yes, but the true answer is more complex than I can write about in a comment.
The US has 26.1 doctors per capita, while Germany has 42.5, which is a middle-of-the-road number for the developed West. Do you accept the criticism that the US simply artificially limits the supply of doctors, which leads to overwork for physicians, and worse health outcomes for patients? Do you think most doctors would take less hours for a somewhat lower salary if you it was possible?
The comparisons between countries is hard because roles, processes and existence of other practitioners will vary a ton.
High doctor-per-capita could be a sign of inefficient use of resources rather than being a good thing.
Examples: Do you need a prescription for stuff that's otherwise over-the-counter elsewhere?
Is over-the-counter stuff paid by (state) insurance if you get a prescription for people that don't value their time?
Do people go to the doctor anyway for every possible matter (e.g. cough/cold/flu in otherwise healthy people)?
Do you have to make a pointless appointment with your GP every year to confirm you still have that incurable disease in order to keep seeing your specialist? Or renew that allergy med prescription every allergy season? Or go once for a lab test, and then again in-person just to find out the results, even if they're negative?
Who puts in most IV lines? In some places it’s a doctor, other places, nursing staff.
Re: Robot dentist performs first human procedure
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
The medical establishment also artificially limits the number of doctors in order to keep salaries high. I live in Boston, arguably the top city for medical care in the US, and it is not uncommon to have a six month waiting list to see a specialist. People talk about prescription drugs being the cause of high medical costs in the US, but it’s really the hospitals and doctors that are driving the majority of the costs…
Doctors don't seem to be driving the majority of the costs. After adjusting for inflation, doctors don't make much more than they did in 1984, yet the percentage of GDP spent on healthcare has almost doubled since then (and the real GDP has also doubled in that time). For example, see [1] where a general surgeon made an average of $118,689 in 1984 and a family practitioner $84,256. This would be $358k and $254k in 20…
Thanks for the datapoint about physician inflation adjusted salaries, but I said ‘hospitals and doctors are driving the majority of the costs’. In 2023, hospitals and physician and clinical services made up just over half of costs:
https://www.ama-assn.org/about/research/trends-health-care-s...
Nursing care added another 4.3%, and other personal health care expenditures (dental, medical equipment, and other professional services) added another 16.5%, or about 2/3 of total costs when all taken together.
By the way, an average salary of $423K is pretty good, and a six month wait to see a specialist amounts to denial of medical care. Serious reform is needed.
Re: Robot dentist performs first human procedure
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
So, what is your job? I will be honest, I've had better luck with google than most doctors. I've had doctors say things which were completely incorrect. I've had doctors prescribe unnecessary and not advised meds for what they diagnosed me with(incorrectly). I have friends who are pharmacists and they agree with my opinion, and they interact with doctors daily.
I have had the opposite experience. I have had professionals find and treat problems in weeks after wasting years using books and the internet. I am not saying it is impossible, but find good info on the internet, but it has its limits.
There's gotta be errors on both sides, now the question is if we are assessing their risks properly or not. Maybe giving a shot to a low risk thing you read on the internet is worth a try, and maybe booking a doctor visit and getting examined will be worth the time and money.
It'd be nice to have this decision tree being built out in the open, ultimately everyone needs it.
Re: Robot dentist performs first human procedure
#95It’s going to become increasingly apparent in the US over time the degree to which doctors & the regulatory state are blocking us from getting cheap new care. Already ML algos are more accurate at diagnosing melanomas from an image than dermatologists - but we will never get that tech because doctors are fiercely protective of their salaries and have captured the arm of the state to help them do so.
Being a doc, I can confidently tell you you are totally incorrect as to why things happen the way they do in healthcare. That won't surprise you, I guess. I long tried to make outsiders, and especially tech people, understand what our job is, but discussions always lead to the same stereotypes.
> That won't surprise you, I guess. I long tried to make outsiders, and especially tech people, understand what our job is, but discussions always lead to the same stereotypes.
You can explain all you want, but the US is the only country that has exorbitant bills for healthcare culturally normalized for some reason, despite outcomes being roughly the same as other developed countries.
Unless your explanation sufficiently addresses that (which I doubt, since you are not an economist), no one will care to listen.
So maybe a little less confidence and a bit more humility and empathy (for those that need healthcare and can't afford it).
Re: Robot dentist performs first human procedure
#96Re: Robot dentist performs first human procedure
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least this is actual CNC software using math and geometry that somebody can find the bugs in. What terrifies me is “software” that is really just black boxes filled with floating point numbers and no one knows how it works, or when it won’t.
IDK. Logically you are right, but humans are emotional. Just a day or so ago, here on HN, full of IT guys, there was a discussion about some Tesla autopilot crash. People were absolutely livid and demanded the impossible. Now - generic Musk hate might have something to do with it, but I suspect that it is not just Musk. We really react very unfavorably to machines wreaking havoc, while our tolerance for humans fessin…
> We really react very unfavorably to machines wreaking havoc, while our tolerance for humans fessing up is somewhat higher.
Yup.
Over 100 people die in car crashes in the USA every day. When a fatal car crash happens, it MIGHT make it to the local news. But a single car crashes while driving autonomously and it's national news for MONTHS.
Now, I'll acknowledge that there will be statistical bias here. There percentage of cars driving autonomously at any given moment is likely less than 1%. But autonomous cars make different kinds of mistakes. They'll fail to identify the lines in the road correctly, or fail to recognize an obstacle. Meanwhile, humans will drive drunk, drive distracted, or have massive egos and drive dangerously because they think they own the road and everyone else is just in their way, or just simply be bad drivers that don't even look around themselves before changing lanes.
Re: Robot dentist performs first human procedure
#98It’s going to become increasingly apparent in the US over time the degree to which doctors & the regulatory state are blocking us from getting cheap new care. Already ML algos are more accurate at diagnosing melanomas from an image than dermatologists - but we will never get that tech because doctors are fiercely protective of their salaries and have captured the arm of the state to help them do so.
Being a doc, I can confidently tell you you are totally incorrect as to why things happen the way they do in healthcare. That won't surprise you, I guess. I long tried to make outsiders, and especially tech people, understand what our job is, but discussions always lead to the same stereotypes.
Can you explain why optometrist is necessary to buy glasses? Eye exam is already automated to a large extend, and it shouldn't be hard to make it 100% automated by having machine ask questions instead of optometrist. Optometrist already follows a well defined algorithm to come up with prescription by putting a series of lens pairs in phoroptor and asking patient which one is better.
Re: Robot dentist performs first human procedure
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being a doc, I can confidently tell you you are totally incorrect as to why things happen the way they do in healthcare. That won't surprise you, I guess. I long tried to make outsiders, and especially tech people, understand what our job is, but discussions always lead to the same stereotypes.
> That won't surprise you, I guess. I long tried to make outsiders, and especially tech people, understand what our job is, but discussions always lead to the same stereotypes. You can explain all you want, but the US is the only country that has exorbitant bills for healthcare culturally normalized for some reason, despite outcomes being roughly the same as other developed countries. Unless your explanation sufficie…
So, if I tell you: 'I'd like help, but when I ask for it I get something worse than what I had at the start', that's me being a typical insufferable doctor, I guess ? We both fit our stereotypes really well, then !
Re: Robot dentist performs first human procedure
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Come on, doctors are some of the most highly compensated wage earners. Every working stiff at all income levels sacrifices disproportionately to their income, and if I were a high school teacher, I'd belly laugh at this doctor pity party.
Some doctors* The front line primary care doctors and nurse practitioners dont make as much as IT people quite often.
Lets not lump in nurse practitioners. I'm absolutely in favor of giving more responsibilities to NPs and paying them more than they currently are.
Data on doctor salaries is very difficult to come by publicly, however H1B salaries indicate the average pay for H1B PCPs is $200k [0]. These are the lowest paid physicians. If you look at the data, many many physicians are making much more than that - with many specialities averaging $300k+. Generally H1B workers make less than comparable native-born (even though that's illegal) so we should view this as a lower-bound.
That puts hourly pay for average PCPs lower than the top SWEs, but comparing average with average or specialty with average and you're already quickly outpacing large majority of SWEs.