[simcop2387]

> 2. No, we shouldn't regulate to whom companies should be allowed to sell them. The defaults are good enough for most. Provide an easy to use control for max pressure and people will figure it out.

I'm iffy on the machines themselves for this, mostly because I'm just ignorant about the risks and potential issues. But this absolutely should be the case for the consumable/wear items that go along with it. There's been a lot of push-back on retailers being able to sell things like the masks, the hoses, filters, etc. to the public at large that can't be used without a machine anyway.

> These things should be $500 mass-market consumer units.

Fundamentally yes. I'd be fine with it being something as simple as the local pharmacy can keep them in the back and you bring in the prescription from the doctor and they file it away saying that you're allowed to buy/replace it if there's some reasonable evidence that they need some modicum of control for safety of people. It shouldn't be any harder than getting some antibiotics.

As it is now I'm using a 10+ year old machine because I've changed insurance companies multiple times since and my current one wants a full sleep study before they'll sign off on anything at all (like allow the doctor to prescribe or let me order one). And they wouldn't tell me if they'd cover the sleep study or not.

[titusjohnson]

> I'd be fine with it being something as simple as the local pharmacy can keep them in the back and you bring in the prescription from the doctor

Just curious, why do you think a Dr. should be involved at all?

[bluGill]

You should have a Dr who keeps track of all your medical information. I want my doctor to know each time I take an Aspirin or put on a bandage. Most of the time those are meaningless activities (and I don't tell my doctor), but once in a while there is something more going on and I need to be forced into the ER.

[blackeyeblitzar]

My experience is that doctors don’t even care about the data they have now. There are a lot of charts and info already available digitally to them and they mostly skim things and make basic diagnoses that are unhelpful and obvious. I keep finding myself in the position of pointing at them at things in the data to get better care. I think doctors are mostly a tax, and a barrier. At least primary care. Specialists also need to be managed in the same way though, and even in an ER situation I’ve seen them be very casual in their understanding of complex situations.

[bluGill]

There is too much data for a human to know it all. We need to give doctors help. When I way I want my doctor to know, that shouldn't be understood as read the update every time it happens. I want tools to analyze all the data and look for patterns - which may or may not exist - and if something "interesting" shows up alert my doctor to take a closer look.

Most of what doctors do should be basic checklists - this is the same thing millions of other people have and should be treated by checklist in best practice. It is the exceptions where you are that 1 in a million case and so there is no checklist that you need doctors to read all the data and think.

[krisoft]

> I want my doctor to know each time I take an Aspirin or put on a bandage.

What do you think your doctor will do based on this data? How do you think your doctor will filter out the signal from all the noise? (Is there even a signal?)

> but once in a while there is something more going on and I need to be forced into the ER.

Do you have a concrete example here?

[bluGill]

Look up the symptoms of a heart attack. Everyone is also a sign of something miner.

as for telling the difference we need a lot of help there.