naked capitalism

mikkel says:

There is a lot of research that has been done about monitoring and prediction (some almost 30 years old) that could save a lot of lives and money if implemented but all of the major companies refuse to collaborate with outside research groups to get them implemented. The “features” that they put in have nothing to do with what nurses or doctors are truly asking for.

I designed a way to increase efficiency by making it very easy for the various devices and departments to communicate to each other, that based on a RAND case study I projected could save $100-$200 billion a year after the 10 years it would take to have widescale implementation. I have pitched it to the upper technical management at places and gotten the same response: “This is wonderful and exactly what we need, but the higher ups won’t do it because a) it means that it’d be easy to add competing systems to the network so hospitals wouldn’t be so pressured to buy everything from one company and b) they make a lot of money in ‘servicing’ that arises due to the inefficiency that this would cut out. In either case they would view it as a threat to their bottom line, go talk to the hospitals.” So I went and talked to people that have worked with major hospital boards and got: “This is great and exactly what we need, but no one will do it because hospitals operate with two year budgets and you say it will take five to implement enough to get a positive return. They’ll just see it as a loss. Plus you said that many hospitals would have to adopt it and no one will be willing to be the first because no one will want to stick out their neck.”

What’s the only place that has shown potential interest? The VA.

Dave of Maryland says:

I have read the comments about posting & plead Guilty As Charged!

Where to start with this sadness? Congress messes up legislation so often that, gee, you’d think that lobbyists write it & that they get exactly what they want. How else to explain the puzzling fact that Congress rarely revisits any of their earlier “failures”? The solution is simple: Prohibit moonlighting by Congresscritters. Make them live on their government salaries, but this is unlikely.

Space on grocery store shelves is limited & if you want a piece of it, you have to pony up. That’s the way it’s always been in America, one way or another. Which means that Mr. Inventor should go, cap in hand, to say, GE Healthcare, & sell them on his product.

And it’s not a bad idea in any case. Mass production is fraught with traps & pitfalls. Not only do you need a manufacturing plant that specializes in what you’ve invented, you need skilled supervisors who can guide your product through the initial manufacturing process. Even with skilled help, you will likely find that prototypes are one thing, finished products quite another. It is not unusual for initial production runs to have 10% (or more) defective. With medical products, that means lives at risk, or lives lost. (Many years ago I sold fancy cameras at Harrods. As one of the world’s showcase locations, we typically got the very first copies off the production lines. Defects were common. And film cameras were really simple things.) That means you must partner with an existing medical product manufacturer, such as GE.

But you’ll have a hard time at GE because they’ve already got a stable of wanna bes ahead of you. They won’t let you in.

This is aside from the fact that not a week goes by that the New York Times does not publish news of the latest & greatest medical gadgets or breakthroughs. Eager readers must have concluded that all serious human ailments were cured long ago.

The reality is more sobering. Most “breakthroughs” turn out to be dead ends. Interferon was the big thing 20 years ago. What happened? It fizzled. Now I hear the Human Genome Project won’t give the answer to Life, the Universe & Everything after all. I’m not surprised. Cold fusion failed. Superconductivity fizzled. I stopped reading NYT’s Science pages some years ago. I don’t think I’ve missed anything.

What frustrates & saddens me all the more is that American medicine is so clearly maladroit. I won’t let the average doctor near me, with their useless tests & dangerous drugs & procedures. Up to 300 years ago, no serious doctor diagnosed without reference to a decumbiture chart. In modern times, the combination of decumbiture & natal charts (and, yes, I’m talking astrology) is a comprehensive & very nearly foolproof solution.

H.L. Cornell (1872-1938), who practiced medicine in the US & India, wrote,

“In my years of practice as a physician, I have, by the use of Astrology, been able to very quickly locate the seat of the disease, the cause of the trouble, the time when the patient began to feel uncomfortable, as based on the birth data of the patient, and this without even touching or examining the patient, and my intense desire to get this knowledge and wisdom before students and Healers in a classified form, is the reason for this Encyclopaedia . . . When once you have discovered the cause of the disease, and understand its philosophy and the relation of the patient to the great Scheme of Nature, the matter of treatment I leave to you, and according to the System and Methods you may be using.” (Encyclopaedia of Medical Astrology, page 502)

Strip the useless tests from medicine & you will eliminate huge expenses. Using simple astrology, yes, that is possible. Precisely as Dr. Cornell stated, so long ago. Once you know what is wrong, once you have a diagnosis, and, more importantly, know WHY, cure becomes a simple matter.

So far as what the old folks knew, know that no modern doctor has ever faced plagues that rendered perfectly healthy adults dead in twelve hours or less. No modern doctor would have any idea how to diagnose, much less treat, diseases that move at that kind of terrifying speed. You will find accounts of those who did in Richard Saunders’ Astrological Judgement & Practice of Physick, from 1677. This book was in Benjamin Franklin’s library. It’s where he got his “Poor Richard”. (Despite what Wiki says.)

I recently reset & published Joseph Blagrave’s Astrological Practice of Physick (1671). The methods he advocates have no modern equivalents whatsoever. To even mention that he was able to externalize disease & treat it remotely is to heap ridicule upon oneself, from those who have studied nothing.

I admit that American medicine is good for a few things, but without a proper astrological grounding, it is otherwise far too dangerous to contemplate. To say nothing of the wasted expense. American medicine is expensive because it fails. Shouldn’t that be blindingly obvious by now?

I leave you with this thought: The next time you are in pain & reach for a pain pill (aspirin, Tylenol, whatever), instead of swallowing the pill, wash & dry your hands & then tape the pill to the center of your left palm. Pill in direct contact with the skin. If you’re still in pain after five minutes, swallow it. If you’re not, you’ve learned something.