I have been very fortunate to have lived a life of very little illness, only the occasional colds and minor viruses that we have all gotten growing up. Even when I was sick with Covid 19 the first time around it was one of the mild ones for me. That being said all of the interactions that I have had with doctors when I needed to, very seldom did I get the opinion that they were being very thorough, or that they even cared which is a sad thing to say. Unfortunately my experiences can be summed up but this:
The doctor has a quick conversation with me about the issue at hand, I mention my symptoms, the doctor proceeds to say whatever possible disease comes to mind and right away “Here is your prescription”.
This may be a crude way of putting it but I hope it gets the point across. What I am trying to get to is that it would be nice and to the benefit of everyone if they took a little more time, ran tests, and did their best effort to come up with a more accurate assessment of what the problem can be. It’s the reason some people have illnesses that go undetected for so long until is too late.
Now, this being said a consequence of this is that physicians will see less patients on a daily basis, which could potentially hurt hospitals where I believe matters to them the most, their income. To be fair that is just speculation but I think is safe to say that most people now days are pretty aware that the Medical Industry shows very little interest in the well being of the people they care for.
What does it mean for Doctors to act like Engineers?
When I say that maybe things would be better if doctors practiced medicine the way for example a computer engineer looks at a software problem they are trying to solve, it means to use all the knowledge at their disposal and take some time to think about all the possible solutions, explore different possibilities of what could be wrong. I find it hard to believe that after a very short conversation and a prescription, that doctor hit it on the nail with the diagnosis. The idea being:
“If this pills work then that’s great! if not then come for another check up so we can try another set of pills”
A sad way to practice medicine.
When I’m given a problem at work that I have to write code to fix, my first instinct is to understand the problem as much as I can, leave no stones unturned. Run tests, see what the actual cause of the issue is, and once I’m sure that’s when I fix it. Don’t get me wrong, I am fully aware that the human body is much more complex than an algorithm but isn’t that the reason doctors study for so many years and society values their knowledge as much as it does? I mean if I take my time with a piece of code then what should be expected of the person that should help you get better?
Personal Anecdote
A couple of years ago I was not feeling right mentally speaking, there were some things going on around me that for some reason made me feel a little down at times, which was not normal on me. So naturally I got worried. I went to see a psychiatrist, wanted a professional opinion on what maybe it could be. So I get to the appointment, I sit down with the doctor and I am not exaggerating when I say that she asked me 3 questions. I wasn’t in there for more than 7 minutes and walked right out with a prescription for Xanax ( anyone that has ever heard that name knows what it can do to a person ). I get to my car and I start to think about that interaction I just had and I kept coming to the same conclusion, there is no way that person knows what I have. I threw away the prescription went to my house and began to do what I should have done from the beginning which was to try to understand for myself what could be wrong, what had changed in my life that could indirectly be causing me to feel like that. It took some time but after a couple of months I got over my issue. This scared me a bit because there I was all better and wondering what would have happened had I gone down the Xanax route.
I have been thinking about this for a long time, for a way to express my concerns about today’s medical practices and the negative impact they have on people’s lives, which pains me to say because medicine is supposed to help people, and the distrust we all see now days with the medical field is nothing short of alarming.
As always, thank you for reading.
