So you set something up to weasel your way into other "families" friendships by doing a specific thing and then judging their response/non-response? Like A/B testing humans.
Perhaps some people can sense this stuff subconsciously. Relationships should build naturally.
Face-time. Their knowledge, training, and ability to write letters. Just because it's expensive, doesn't mean they are spending their evenings researching possible patient conditions and expanding their knowledge. Some might, but this isn't TV.
Anyway, what are you paid for? Guessing a programmer, you just sit in a chair all day and press buttons on a magical box. As your customer, why am I having to explain what product I want and what my requirements are? Why don't you have all my answers immediately? How dare you suggest a different specialism? You made a mistake?!?
Nothing he stated suggests this. Not giving a nod to how difficult it is doesn't mean people don't care. Unfortunately it is still true, we all have to advocate for our own care and pay attention to ourselves. The fact that this negatively affects the people who need the most care and attention is a harrowing part of humanity we often gloss over.
A boxing referee says "Protect yourself at all times."
They do this not because it isn't their job to protect fighters from illegal blows, but because the consequences of illegal blows are sometimes unfixable.
An encouragement for patients to co-own their own care isn't a removal of a physician's responsibility.
It's an acknowledgement that (1) physicians are human, fallible, and not omniscient, (2) most health systems have imperfect information sync'ing across multiple parties, and (3) no one is going to care more about you than you (although others might be much more informed and capable).
Self-advocacy isn't a requirement for good care -- it's due diligence and personal responsibility for a plan with serious consequences.
If a doc misses a diagnosis and a patient didn't spend any effort themselves, is that solely the doctor's fault?
PS to parent's insinuation: 20 years in the industry and 15 years of managed cancer in immediate family, but what do I know?
My question is, since you understand this very well, how successful
are patients (that manage the effort) at both acquiring scientifically accurate knowledge
and improving their health meaningfully?
And maybe share some tips like good knowledge databases?
I've seen patients (both family and non) meaningfully improve their health outcomes with statistically-significant frequency primarily via 4 methods.
1. Take ownership of their own medical records, learn them, and bring them to appointments. The most common failure in the current US medical system is incomplete/missing record transfer because of disconnected systems. Physicians will almost always attempt to confirm critical details, but that doesn't help if the patient says "I don't know."
2. Learn basic medical system-level knowledge relevant to a case. E.g. college 1xx freshman-level. No need to become an expert, but if a patient is dealing with kidney issues... it's pretty important to learn the basics about what kidneys are and do.
3. Ask about alternatives. "If we didn't go with that plan, what would be your next two recommended plans, and why aren't they first?" Having that alternative context is especially helpful when visiting specialists / other parties, as the patient can more fully describe the thinking behind their treatment plan. Also when researching online, the context helps avoid obvious pitfalls. (And yes, sometimes the reason will be "Because your insurance wouldn't cover X", which is also useful to know)
4. Use second options to measure uncertainty about the primary plan (e.g. everyone agrees vs it's debatable), but don't treatment-shop. The useful piece of information is opening a discussion about specific alternatives, while also listening to reasons against them.
Peer reviewed studies are surprisingly accessible (e.g. PubMed et al.), but they're also functionally useless without basic medical knowledge and details about a specific case.
Finally, for potentially lethal and/or lengthy conditions, I'm a firm believer that any empowerment improves outcomes simply by making the patient feel more involved and in control of their care.
Almost every "that could have been avoided" case I know was a willfully-ignorant and/or disinterested patient.
That's apparently how you pull the wool over the eyes of the world's smartest people. To be fair something like it needed to happen, because the fear everyone had ten years ago of creating a product like ChatGPT wasn't entirely rational. However the way OpenAI unblocked building it unfairly undermined the legitimacy of the open source movement by misappropriating their good name.
He didn't just drive there and sit in the car for a week or so either, which could be a shock reaction or wanting to keep the routine going whilst looking for the next thing to do... He was doing this for 6-8 months. It reveals a lot about a "rational" crowd.
If society progresses as envisaged, people will always want newer and better technology. Living standards should improve for all, as the older technology is purchased second-hand by those who cannot afford the latest versions, and/or repaired as desired.
When a businesses chooses to drop support for a product entirely (hardware or spares no longer produced, and software no longer updated), they've presumably already made the business decision to drop the product for sale. If the product were still in demand and the existing devices still function, dropping product support could effectively render the devices useless or destined for landfill.
This often happens when: online services are dropped, devices cannot be repaired, or worse, software cannot be simply updated for security and compatibility reasons etc.
If manufacturers want existing users with working technology to upgrade, they should design compelling improved products, not force a load of e-waste and bricked devices. There's little reason for a manufacturer to quickly drop support without following this model of open sourcing, unless they know they are forcing existing customers to an unnecessary upgrade.
Manufacturers should support their products, innovate, or let them go over time. The "market" (consumer choice) should dictate when a product is obsolete. We own our products and should have the rights to maintain them. They should be paying us and taxed for damaging the environment for dropping support early and/or without open-sourcing.
Most newer technology hasn't seemed better in a while.
It's almost impossible to find a phone with a removable battery, or one that's easily fixable, and has a headphone jack. My galaxy S3 was all of those things. USB3 is good though.
Words are cheap. When someone tells me they’ve changed, I need to see at least a year of consistent behavior before I take that claim seriously. Far more often, what looks like change is just a honeymoon period that fades, with old habits resurfacing and regression to the mean taking over.
Current LLMs seem to have an opposing goal baked in; don't reveal the exact source. They may ignore copyright when training, but revealing actual lists of sources with quotes would be too much of a giveaway.
Perhaps some people can sense this stuff subconsciously. Relationships should build naturally.
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