More Broken Healthcare

Posted 29 April, 2010 in Uncategorized

I just have three things to say. First of all, the word is pronounced PRE-scription not PER-scription.

Secondly, if we’re talking medicinal, you want to know something that is broken in the health care system? I’ll tell you: pharmacies. What value does a pharmacist add? None. They can be immediately replaced by vending machines and websites (thx, Zach.) I can read my own labels, thank you very much.

Finally, why are many non-addictive medications by prescription anyway? Here’s an example: ibuprofen. You can buy OTC ibuprofen, and they usually come in 200mg tablets. 200mg doesn’t do anything useful, so what do people do? They take 4-8 of them. If you go to a doctor with a bad headache, they’ll prescribe you ibuprofen in 800mg tablets. I’m sorry Mom, but that’s retarded. Ibuprofen doesn’t need to be by prescription. Here’s another: Liptor. Lipitor is used for reducing cholesterol. “But wait,” Mr. Wily protests, “what if a user bought Lipitor and decided to take more than the label suggested? That would be bad.” Indeed, but the side effects of Lipitor are headache and muscle soreness, hardly cause for alarm. On the other hand, too much of lots of OTC drugs can be harmful as well. For example, excessive Tylenol can hurt your liver, but Tylenol isn’t by prescription. Why?

While I’m at it, doctors themselves are close to obsolete. The Internet is making elite bearers of information unnecessary. When I last went to the doctor for a checkup, he GOOGLED a symptom during our visit. GOOGLED. I can google. Thanks for charging me for your web surfing.

That’s all.

Broken Medicine Rant

Posted 26 January, 2010 in Uncategorized

What’s wrong with Medicine today?

Let’s design the most inefficient, error-prone, hackable system for transmitting medical information.

We’ll start by having persons with notorious handwriting, doctors, scribble in code onto a piece of paper.

Then, the afflicted person (the patient) jams that paper into their pants’ pocket and carries it down to a non-doctor (a pharmacy tech), who attempts to decipher the information and enter it into the computer.

If it’s a new pharmacy or a new doctor, they have NO IDEA what you’ve been prescribed before, or what you’re currently taking.

Why, why, why?