<story><title>Researchers: Medical errors now third leading cause of death in US</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/05/03/researchers-medical-errors-now-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-united-states/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ada1981</author><text>If you spend anytime with the medical industry you soon realize the issue.&lt;p&gt;I helped launched (the now deadpooled) Theil backed MetaMed a few years -- essentially a private research team for medicine, and what the founders taught me was astounding.&lt;p&gt;That things like amputating the wrong limbs, doctors not washing their hands and killing you by infection and a horror of other preventable errors are shocking common.&lt;p&gt;This didn&amp;#x27;t even take into consideration that things discovered in labs that might cure you take at least 30 years to reach the doctors who might implement them, if they ever do.&lt;p&gt;The distortion of hubris from doctors, economic incentives and other systemic issues results in a &amp;quot;health care system&amp;quot; that doesn&amp;#x27;t realily seem to do what it sets out to do -- we spend 10x what some developing countries do per year per person with no better outcomes.&lt;p&gt;Accute care seems to be reasonably good, fixing a broken arm, etc. (assuming they don&amp;#x27;t accidentally remove it); but chronic care is often just a pipeline for the recurring revenue model of big pharma (at best).&lt;p&gt;The examples are never ending but for fun, take a google to discover how many pap smears are performed annually on women &lt;i&gt;who have already had their uterus removed&lt;/i&gt; - then consider the cost to insurance and tax payers.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>agumonkey</author><text>I often think that the medical industry enjoys (or suffers) from some sort of a given god complex. They can do what they want as soon as they reach a certain threshold of saving. Nobody will debate them (most of us don&amp;#x27;t have the articulate knowledge anyway) and will morally and existentially satisfy from still being alive.&lt;p&gt;I just went through 4 doctors (gen. and specs.) about deep yet diffuse cardio vascular problems (life altering if not threatening). Their diagnosis was &amp;quot;nothing to see you are depressed&amp;quot;. Since my problems started I can&amp;#x27;t sleep on my right side (causes heart race, pain and suffocation), and have now back pain; in order to sleep without pain I tried on my stomach. This configuration changed something, I felt stings around my heart, and a sudden relaxation, warm blood reaching my fingers and feets (something I didn&amp;#x27;t feel for a year). Stings moved along, hurting at finger and toe tips. I felt sweetly alive, jumped out of my bed (because now I can). Even cleand my browser tabs. So much for depression.&lt;p&gt;I tried discussing with doctors calmly. Accepting the data, their knowledge. Yet not backing down if I felt they weren&amp;#x27;t really solving my problems. But it&amp;#x27;s impossible. One doctor even dared me to reproduce transient symptoms with an annoyed tone. You start considering being hypercondriac, a crybaby.&lt;p&gt;Deep down all I want is a way to monitor myself deeply so I can take care of myself but I&amp;#x27;m facing this paywall.</text></comment>
<story><title>Researchers: Medical errors now third leading cause of death in US</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/05/03/researchers-medical-errors-now-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-united-states/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ada1981</author><text>If you spend anytime with the medical industry you soon realize the issue.&lt;p&gt;I helped launched (the now deadpooled) Theil backed MetaMed a few years -- essentially a private research team for medicine, and what the founders taught me was astounding.&lt;p&gt;That things like amputating the wrong limbs, doctors not washing their hands and killing you by infection and a horror of other preventable errors are shocking common.&lt;p&gt;This didn&amp;#x27;t even take into consideration that things discovered in labs that might cure you take at least 30 years to reach the doctors who might implement them, if they ever do.&lt;p&gt;The distortion of hubris from doctors, economic incentives and other systemic issues results in a &amp;quot;health care system&amp;quot; that doesn&amp;#x27;t realily seem to do what it sets out to do -- we spend 10x what some developing countries do per year per person with no better outcomes.&lt;p&gt;Accute care seems to be reasonably good, fixing a broken arm, etc. (assuming they don&amp;#x27;t accidentally remove it); but chronic care is often just a pipeline for the recurring revenue model of big pharma (at best).&lt;p&gt;The examples are never ending but for fun, take a google to discover how many pap smears are performed annually on women &lt;i&gt;who have already had their uterus removed&lt;/i&gt; - then consider the cost to insurance and tax payers.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>DanBC</author><text>&amp;gt; That things like amputating the wrong limbs&lt;p&gt;Wrong site surgery is a &amp;quot;never event&amp;quot; in the English NHS. That means that there&amp;#x27;s never any excuse for it to happen, and it should not ever happen.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.england.nhs.uk&amp;#x2F;patientsafety&amp;#x2F;never-events&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.england.nhs.uk&amp;#x2F;patientsafety&amp;#x2F;never-events&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Indeed, it&amp;#x27;s the first one on the list: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.england.nhs.uk&amp;#x2F;wp-content&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;never-evnts-list-15-16.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.england.nhs.uk&amp;#x2F;wp-content&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;never-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;In 2012 &amp;#x2F; 2013 there were 83 wrong site surgeries.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s way too many, but for context:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nhsconfed.org&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;key-statistics-on-the-nhs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nhsconfed.org&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;key-statistics-on-the-nhs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; There were 15.892m total hospital admissions in 2014&amp;#x2F;15, 31 per cent more than a decade earlier (12.102m).&lt;p&gt;(Not all of those will be surgeries)&lt;p&gt;and:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; In 2015, across Hospital and Community Healthcare Services (HCHS) and GP practices, the NHS employed 149,808 doctors, 314,966 qualified nursing staff and health visitors (HCHS), 25,418 midwives, 23,066 GP practice nurses, 146,792 qualified scientific, therapeutic and technical staff, 18,862 qualified ambulance staff and 30,952 managers.</text></comment>