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by drunkpotato
4870 days ago
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This probably won't make you any less sad. Apologies in advance. It's not simply a matter of throwing money and brains at healthcare. I used to work on data analysis at a healthcare startup. There is no shortage of driven, talented, intelligent people making businesses in that space. There are giant firehoses of money in healthcare as well, both effective uses and of the boondoggle variety. So it's not solely the lure of money that draws bright people out of healthcare. It could also be the realization that nothing you ever did would be more effective than getting doctors to wash their hands, and doctors still don't do that. Many people are brilliant enough to make wonderful tools, but it seems that nobody is brilliant enough to overcome a system that doesn't want to use them. Whereas if you make a tool that helps businesses sell advertisements, or whatever the source of revenue, there is a higher chance people will actually use it. |
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If you could invent some sort of mechanism that told doctors to wash hands, I think they would be more likely to. Here's a few ways to do that:
1. Google Glasses with OpenCV - touching blood, bodily fluids etc. sets an alarm that doctors must either snooze till later or walk up to a sink to silence.
2. Special gloves that instantly turn green when coming in contact with the most common bacteria.
3. Wrist watch / mobile device that beeps loudly every time a doctor goes from one patient to the next without stopping by a sink.
I agree that hospitals and doctors don't want to change because that takes time. However, there is no point in giving up today because your work isn't going to be popular for two more decades.