<story><title>US health system ranks last compared with peer nations – report</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/18/american-health-system-ranks-last</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>arjie</author><text>One thing that&amp;#x27;s surprised me about the US is the general slowness of most things. In India, you can get MRIs and CT Scans same day. Or you could the last time I was there. And it didn&amp;#x27;t cost very much in comparison.&lt;p&gt;My doctors have all been good (attested to by my parents who are surgeons themselves) but the healthcare system is wonky.&lt;p&gt;One thing I didn&amp;#x27;t expect is that the Indian system where you just drag your health records around paper copy yourself is superior to US EMR systems - which doctors seem to always have trouble with.&lt;p&gt;But now I have some friends in medicine and I always have them pull my records and keep a copy myself. It&amp;#x27;s usually a fax but it&amp;#x27;s better that way. Clearly electronic interop isn&amp;#x27;t working most of the time.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>evnix</author><text>The general slowness extends to simple things like x-rays and blood tests too. This is not just US but whole of the west seems to have the exact same attitude.&lt;p&gt;Most of Asia has same day or next day medical tests. In India you can order something like UberEats where in a technician comes home collects your blood samples and the results are emailed within the next 24 hours or so.&lt;p&gt;Medicine seems to be commoditzed in the east, easily accessible and cheap. West treats it like voodoo magic or rocket science that only a chosen few are capable of partaking in. There is always a long queue to get to your local voodoo practitioner.</text></comment>
<story><title>US health system ranks last compared with peer nations – report</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/18/american-health-system-ranks-last</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>arjie</author><text>One thing that&amp;#x27;s surprised me about the US is the general slowness of most things. In India, you can get MRIs and CT Scans same day. Or you could the last time I was there. And it didn&amp;#x27;t cost very much in comparison.&lt;p&gt;My doctors have all been good (attested to by my parents who are surgeons themselves) but the healthcare system is wonky.&lt;p&gt;One thing I didn&amp;#x27;t expect is that the Indian system where you just drag your health records around paper copy yourself is superior to US EMR systems - which doctors seem to always have trouble with.&lt;p&gt;But now I have some friends in medicine and I always have them pull my records and keep a copy myself. It&amp;#x27;s usually a fax but it&amp;#x27;s better that way. Clearly electronic interop isn&amp;#x27;t working most of the time.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>askonomm</author><text>In Estonia all of our records (incl. Health) are digitized and online in a central system that both doctors and you can access. It works wonders. Every doctor I go to can see my entire medical history with a press of a button, and I don&amp;#x27;t have to deal with any of that. Likewise when they prescribe new things, I can see my prescriptions right there, and so forth. We&amp;#x27;re a 100% online nation now, and clearly when done well it&amp;#x27;s remarkably good.</text></comment>