[not_jd_salinger]

> I work for a company that uses this data to match terminally ill patients with niche treatments and clinical trials, and the work literally saves and prolongs lives.

Talked with a company that made similar claims about what they are doing, but it turns out they were really ensuring that their users where choosing the medication from the highest bidder rather than the one that was really in the the patient's best interests.

The mental gymnastics they did to justify they were doing what was in the patient's best interests was fun to observe, but in the end they were just a tool of a large pharmaceutical company, exploiting sick people for profit.

Quick cynicism sanity check: who pays your company, your users or the "niche" treatment provider?

If it's the former, that sounds like it's good work.

If it's the latter I would recommend being a bit more skeptical of the business motives of your employer and their customers.

[throwaway894345]

> Quick cynicism sanity check: who pays your company, your users or the "niche" treatment provider?

Insurers. They don’t want to pay for the expensive product.

[sennight]

huh, would that be part of the jewel encrusted platinum insurance plan? Because I've always just assumed that once you started getting into the experimental drug desperation phase - insurance carriers were totally off the hook for the what would otherwise be an infinite increase in their risk exposure. It sure would be nice if there wasn't such a massive asymmetry in pricing data.

[throwaway894345]

Why are you coming at me like I invented cancer?

[sennight]

Why are you so sensitive? Unless you are an insurance provider incarnate - nothing I said was critical of you. Now... if I were to being going after you, I'd imagine it would be because of the hamfisted "Making the world a better place, through <insert profit motivated activity here>." You can just want money, it is perfectly natural in a world full priced things, and I don't imagine the self deception is good for you.

[throwaway894345]

This is just baseless, predictable cynicism, devoid of any understanding of basic economics. Someone is doing good work for society and making money? Insert boilerplate remark about how greedy they must be.

Of course, not only is it distinctly possible to contribute to society and make a profit—it’s basically the only way. In the real world loads of researchers and engineers and other employees aren’t going to work for free to appease random Internet cynics (who rarely if ever make positive contributions to society of their own, mind you), so capital is required which entails investors and returns on investment. Yeah, that means insurers or someone else paying money.

[sennight]

Looks like I was right, you're clearly so emotional invested that you've failed to notice how you just repeated what I wrote... but with greater verbosity and the kind of angry tone that makes an opinion so easy to dismiss.