I just want to add something more. I had the above conversation with my dermotologist whom I've gotten to know quite well. Now I'm a structural engineer and I have to carry professional liability, E & O, ect. for my business and am very familiar with standards of practice that anyone doing engineering must follow to the letter or you just won't be able to get insurance. You wouldn't believe the calculations and quality controls that are necessary and must be documented for things that common sense would tell you works. What should be a a simple decision or selection instead becomes many manhours of effort.
When I asked the doctor about whether his field had similar restrictions and standards that he had to follow, he laughed and was almost relieved to talk to someone who "got it." I found out that what I thought was a burdensome CYA waste of money and effort in my field, turned out to be a joke compared to what he has to go through.
At least for me, I'm dealing with materials of known or documented assumed properties and natural functions that have been well established in science both theoretical and applied. My doctor, on the other hand, has none of these advantages. Everything they know is based on observation and trial and error, no one person walking in the door is the same, probability and educated guesses play and big part in diagnosis and medications. Medical practice is more an art than a science.
His insurance bill is more than I make in a year and that doesn't even include all the other costs I mentioned above which he guesses triples or quadruples the amount.
My parents used to take me and siblings to the doctor and pay for the cost out of their pockets or over a short period of time. That was just 50 years ago.
That is an outrageous statement and it is FALSE... a minimum of 8 years of intense science based schooling just to be a practitioner...no Art school I know...
Doctors spend 8 years of exposure to a lot of information that was learned basically through trial and error. There aren't many equations in medicine. A lot of practicle facts and much theory but very few absolutes. Engineers have the advantage of mathematics and physics that contain a lot of well understood principles. I can say F=ma. It's been around for hundreds of years and used to be considered a natural fact then, Einstein changed all that but no big deal. It's close enough, so close as to still be considered a fact. In medicine about the only thing you've got that comes close to that is "people die when they have no air". That's is unless they drown or are in very cold water that changes things and, of course, some people can go quite a while without air, more than others. It's not so easy to say "take this pill and your cured". It's more like "take this pill and 99.9% of people are cured". The others could possibly have adverse reactions, like death. They don't exactly know why the pill cures most and not others, either.
I visited a pharmecutical research plant in high school once. It was a huge building filled with, millions of petri dishes. Each dish had a certain mixture and each was unique from the others and when they tested them guess what they did? They watched to see which ones worked and which didn't! That was their research technique. Trial and error. They told us that was how all medicines are tested and discovered. Just keep trying till you find one that works.
From your own experience, you should be a BIG advocate of the President's investment in computerized medical records to reduce costs and improve quality. Then, to create a data base of best practices; to give doctors tools to make the best treatment decisions for their patients by providing objective information on the relative benefits of treatments.
Absolutely!!! It's a no brainer!
You mention the word "insurance", yet you call patients that have their lives ruined by medical errors or neglect "parasites" instead of insurance corporations that promote personnel that find a way to DENY coverage...do you THINK those same insurance corporations "might" be milking doctors too?
No, I'm referring to the ambulance chasers, not the people who have been harmed in some way. They started the fray and now it's nothing more than everyone for themselves and to such a degree that there is no honor on any side. As for medical errors what are those really? They are judgemental errors. The doctor guessed wrong, made a poor decision, or maybe didn't think it entirely through. Do you make mistakes? Neglect, that's an entirely different matter. Little excuse for that. But errors are going to happen because medicine is administered by people who have to make judgements, sometimes without complete training, time, under stress, and so on. Do people suffer as a consequence sometimes, yes. Does everyone suffer, no. Does society benefit that people take on these responsibilities, yes. There has to be a fair median, going for the juggler of any professional who ever makes a poor decision is not the answer.
Please provide a list of any structure you were involved in engineering...I will make avoiding them an "art form"...LOL
I'm not an artist and never said I was.
WOW...ART huh...
So, You Want to Be a Doctor?
The Educational Process
Becoming a physician is not an easy task, though. The educational process begins with a rigorous pre-med baccalaureate program. Standard curricula include heavy coursework in chemistry, biology, biochemistry, physics, physiology, mathematics, and so on. Pre-med students need to excel in their academic training in order to be considered for admission at a leading medical school. Affiliated with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) are 125 accredited U.S. medical schools and 16 accredited Canadian medical schools.
Medical school enrollment requires exceptional academic performance, high scores on the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), strong recommendations from college faculty and administrators, and completion of a lengthy written application, as well as on-site interviews whenever possible.
Medical education involves four years of intensive classroom and clinical study. Core courses cover topics such as: Gross Anatomy, Human Embryology, Behavioral Medicine, Medical Ethics, Pathology, and Pharmacology. Students in their third and fourth years of study undergo various clinical rotations: e.g., Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Neurology, Ob/Gyn, Psychiatry, Radiology, Primary Care, and Oncology.
Medical school graduates receive either a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree or a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) degree. Some students graduate from a dual-study program with a combined M.D./PhD degree.
Upon completion of medical school, graduates take a one-year internship that provides them with more extensive hands-on clinical experience as a medical practitioner. Once they have finished their internship and receive state medical licensure, they can practice medicine. However, the vast majority continue their training by doing a Residency in some medical specialty-such as Anesthesiology, Family Medicine, Radiology, General Surgery, etc. Residency programs usually last three years; but some combined residency programs-such as Internal Medicine and Psychiatry-last four or five years.
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