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The darker side of being a doctor

282 points · 342 comments · Danhale93

  1. estearum · · focus · HN ↗
    (speaking from US): The reality is we need more doctors. A lot more.

    There's no solution other than training a lot, lot, lot, lot more doctors.

    Their salaries need to be lower, training needs to be cheaper and faster, and we need a lot more of them.

    1. zsoltkacsandi · · focus · HN ↗
      > The reality is we need more doctors. A lot more.

      I think building a better prevention layer is more important.

      Don't get me wrong, I agree that we need more doctors (and nurses, and physios, and dietetists, and ...), but it is much easier to scale a good prevention system than the number of workers in healthcare.

      1. lotsofpulp · · focus · HN ↗
        Do you have a plan on preventing the effects of aging, such as mutations in DNA and wear and tear?
        1. zsoltkacsandi · · focus · HN ↗
          Prevention is not about age related diseases, but early onset cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure caused by alcohol and tobacco use, unhealthy diet, and sedentary lifestyle.

          A significant amount of cases could be prevented before they need medical intervention (and put burden on the medical system). There are several researches about this, the number of people with type 2 diabetes doubled in the past decades.

          This is why some healthcare systems reward for example doing 10.000 steps a day with lower insurance fees. They recognized they save a huge amount of money if they get people to move.

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