What Is the Future of the Medical Field?

• ernest_t_bass

  

  OK, here's a first... spinoff of my own thread:
  
  http://www.ohiochatter.com/forum/showthread.php?39786-Contacts
  
  I visited the optometrist today for the first time in 8 years. I sat down at a machine, and it basically did all the work for him. It scanned my eyes to see when my pupils were in and out of focus on an image, and there was another machine that tested if I could see blinking images, or something like that. All the "doctor" had to do was set up the machine, then read the printout, which gave an "semi-accurate" reading of what my prescription should be. So then the doc took me in to test different shit (not sure why I had to derobe), and he looked at the printout and just shifted stuff around, until I could see straight.
  
  Soliloquy - I never realized my eyesight was as bad as it was until I sat in the screening room. Yikes.
  
  So, the gizzst of my thread... I personally feel that the work of the optometrist in my scenario could have been done by a person who earned no more than a 2-year degree. A MACHINE did all the fucking work. The "doctor" just double-checked the numbers, and affirmed a prescription strength. He did not REAL work, and I will pay him like a real fucking doctor.
  
  Will medicine get to the point where machines do ALL THE FUCKING WORK, and we pay doctors to merely read the results to us, or interpret the conclusions? Don't get me wrong... I'm all for advancements in technology, and I'm all for the sweet-ass fucking eye exam I had today (I got a reach around)... But I think that it is going to (it has to) come to the point where doctors start getting paid MUCH LESS than what we are paying them now, based on my scenario.
  
  What do you stupid fucks think?
• gerb131

  

  Better be good or the old lady has wasted 4 yrs and maybe a few more.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  gerb131;1408879 wrote:Better be good or the old lady has wasted 4 yrs and maybe a few more.

  
• gerb131

  

  ernest_t_bass;1408880 wrote:

  Saying the bitch needs a job in the medical field whether its reading tests or sticking fingers in peoples ass holes or eyes.
• Pick6

  

  who cares what you paid him? Dont u have health insurance from your job?
• Ghmothwdwhso

  Pick6;1408898 wrote:who cares what you paid him? Dont u have health insurance from your job?

  Hopefully you are kidding! Please say you are.
• O-Trap

  

  All those commercials about getting "training in the medical field" from an online college will have to adapt.
• Rotinaj

  

  I'm not sure. My fortune telling skills have diminished recently. I think I need contacts.
• WebFire

  ernest_t_bass;1408874 wrote:OK, here's a first... spinoff of my own thread:
  
  http://www.ohiochatter.com/forum/showthread.php?39786-Contacts
  
  I visited the optometrist today for the first time in 8 years. I sat down at a machine, and it basically did all the work for him. It scanned my eyes to see when my pupils were in and out of focus on an image, and there was another machine that tested if I could see blinking images, or something like that. All the "doctor" had to do was set up the machine, then read the printout, which gave an "semi-accurate" reading of what my prescription should be. So then the doc took me in to test different shit (not sure why I had to derobe), and he looked at the printout and just shifted stuff around, until I could see straight.
  
  Soliloquy - I never realized my eyesight was as bad as it was until I sat in the screening room. Yikes.
  
  So, the gizzst of my thread... I personally feel that the work of the optometrist in my scenario could have been done by a person who earned no more than a 2-year degree. A MACHINE did all the fucking work. The "doctor" just double-checked the numbers, and affirmed a prescription strength. He did not REAL work, and I will pay him like a real fucking doctor.
  
  Will medicine get to the point where machines do ALL THE FUCKING WORK, and we pay doctors to merely read the results to us, or interpret the conclusions? Don't get me wrong... I'm all for advancements in technology, and I'm all for the sweet-ass fucking eye exam I had today (I got a reach around)... But I think that it is going to (it has to) come to the point where doctors start getting paid MUCH LESS than what we are paying them now, based on my scenario.
  
  What do you stupid fucks think?

  If that was the only thing an optometrist did, you might be on to something. Setting prescriptions is only part of what they do.
  
  But I think you are right, that machines will do a lot of the "work", but the machines can only do so much. I still thinks docs will have to possess the same knowledge they always have.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  WebFire;1408954 wrote:If that was the only thing an optometrist did, you might be on to something. Setting prescriptions is only part of what they do.
  
  But I think you are right, that machines will do a lot of the "work", but the machines can only do so much. I still thinks docs will have to possess the same knowledge they always have.

  Don't get me wrong, the optometrist did a lot of work, and I think the appt. will be worth what I pay... I just think the most important part, the prescription, was done by a machine. The machine read my eyes, then gave the print out to the doc, and the doc just had to "fact check." I don't feel med school is necessary for a fact checker.
  
  Now, I know an optometrist will do more than give glasses, so perhaps different levels of optometrists? Give a 2-year degree to a fact checker, and pay them less money, costing the consumer less money as well. I'm just surprised the free-market economy hasn't lead to this yet.
• WebFire

  ernest_t_bass;1408955 wrote:
  Now, I know an optometrist will do more than give glasses, so perhaps different levels of optometrists? Give a 2-year degree to a fact checker, and pay them less money, costing the consumer less money as well. I'm just surprised the free-market economy hasn't lead to this yet.

  I think you can blame our insurance system for that.
• friendfromlowry

  While I know very little about optometry, it seems like you had a very routine procedure done that a doctor (and perhaps even someone with lesser training) could have done in their sleep. But not all patients are that routine; some require actual expertise from a doctor.
  As for machines, they are becoming increasingly advanced and can do more, but it still takes an actual human to double-check and figure it out when machines go wrong.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  friendfromlowry;1409142 wrote:While I know very little about optometry, it seems like you had a very routine procedure done that a doctor (and perhaps even someone with lesser training) could have done in their sleep. But not all patients are that routine; some require actual expertise from a doctor.
  As for machines, they are becoming increasingly advanced and can do more, but it still takes an actual human to double-check and figure it out when machines go wrong.

  
  See my last post.
• friendfromlowry

  ernest_t_bass;1408955 wrote:Now, I know an optometrist will do more than give glasses, so perhaps different levels of optometrists? Give a 2-year degree to a fact checker, and pay them less money, costing the consumer less money as well. I'm just surprised the free-market economy hasn't lead to this yet.

  Nursing homes are an example of this. RN's make up less of the staff there than LPN's and medical assistants do.
• Crimson and Gray Hair

  

  Bring on the two year techs - 'bout time we get to book some real savings on our health care.
  
  Who cares that you use an insulin pump because the vision care tech didn't notice you were diabetic four years ago.
  
  Who cares that you had half your tongue cut out because the dental tech didn't notice the cancer when she put in that filling.
  
  Who cares that you're on the list for a liver transplant because the podiatry tech didn't think your skin was very yellow.
  
  Who cares that you lost a leg to bone cancer because the med tech thought that was a muscle cramp last year.
  
  Who care that you are wearing a colostomy bag because the proctology tech just suggested the blood in your stool was because you let someone who is too big crawl up your garbage chute again.
  
  Who cares that...
  
  
  Just think of all that money you didn't have to pay those over-priced, over-educated, over-competent doctors!
• ernest_t_bass

  

  Asinine.
• Crimson and Gray Hair

  

  ernest_t_bass;1409158 wrote:Asinine.

  Indeed. Delegating too many tasks to under-educated, under-experienced techs seriously degrades the quality of health care and unfortunately we are already well on our way toward that end. It's all about money.
• HitsRus

  

  If you are older than 35 you probably have noticed that doctors, dentists and all health care professionals are utilizing technology more and more, and are utilizing trained auxilliaries to do the more mundane grunt work while they concentrate on doing the stuff that requires their education and expertise. This helps to offset the squeeze put upon them by insurance companies that exhort discounts..PPO's and HMO's, medicaid, medicare... and government regulations and mandates that increase costs.
  Medical offices are also small business and they are also subject to the same economic pressures that small business deals with from the government sector.