<story><title>Big Tech Is Going After Health Care</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/26/technology/big-tech-health-care.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>aviv</author><text>Why do we need technology to help improve lives when so many diseases (type 2 diabetes, Crohn&amp;#x27;s, IBS, high blood pressure, arthritis, and dozens of others) can already be reversed and prevented by simply changing a person&amp;#x27;s diet and lifestyle habits? It&amp;#x27;s really quite insane that people would rather take pills for the rest of their lives to treat symptoms of a disease than actually getting rid of it altogether by giving up food habits.&lt;p&gt;Part of it is also due to traditional physicians being so dismissive of the role nutrition plays in a person&amp;#x27;s well being.</text></item><item><author>joshgel</author><text>Interesting you bring up heart failure readmissions. Not saying they aren&amp;#x27;t a problem, but here is a fascinating study in JAMA that argues that places with lower readmissions have higher (worse) mortality. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jamanetwork.com&amp;#x2F;journals&amp;#x2F;jamacardiology&amp;#x2F;article-abstract&amp;#x2F;2663213&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jamanetwork.com&amp;#x2F;journals&amp;#x2F;jamacardiology&amp;#x2F;article-abst...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Not sure we (I&amp;#x27;m a physician) understand even what the problems we need technology to solve are. But yes, we need technology to help (find and) solve some major problems that will improve lives.</text></item><item><author>blhack</author><text>Good.&lt;p&gt;I spent a few years working in a medical IoT startup, and the current state of the &amp;quot;mainstream&amp;quot; medical monitoring technology is not inspiring.&lt;p&gt;During a brainstorming meeting, I asked one of our cofounders, a physician, to tell me about some of the problems he had seen in health.  Don&amp;#x27;t try and solve it, just lets talk about problems.&lt;p&gt;He said that &lt;i&gt;by far&lt;/i&gt; one of the most common causes for re-hospitalization is congestive heart failure.  It&amp;#x27;s a super common problem, &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; it&amp;#x27;s actually really easy to catch (it has strong indicators).  When your heart begins to fail, depending on what side of it fails, your body will retain fluid (in the form of blood) in either your heart or your organs.  Regardless, you will bloat up, and gain weight quickly.&lt;p&gt;So if a patient is at risk for CHF, a nurse will monitor their weight every day (or multiple times a day) and watch for spikes.  If their weight spikes, a doctor will intervene in whatever way is necessary.&lt;p&gt;Can you imagine my frustration at hearing this?  It&amp;#x27;s this massive problem with an obvious (CHEAP!! SO FUCKING CHEAP!!) solution.&lt;p&gt;I spend $30 on a scale from amazon immediately, and about an hour after it arrived I had it connected to an android tablet and broadcasting its readings to a webservice.&lt;p&gt;We never went to market with that (long story).  Please, if you have the means to take something like that and scale it, do so.  You could save lives.  I&amp;#x27;m currently trying.  More people should be trying.  This stuff is so easy, and the impact that you could have is massive.&lt;p&gt;Also: please call your grandparents and just talk to them.  Ask them how they are feeling.  Social isolation (full disclosure: this is what my current project is trying to solve) is probably the area where we as software people could have the biggest impact.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dang</author><text>You broke the site guidelines by taking this thread into a flamewar and grossly overposting. We&amp;#x27;re trying for quality, not quantity, in discussion here—you went far in the other direction. You also broke the HN guidelines in other ways, like personal attacks and going on about comment voting.&lt;p&gt;All of this is really bad. Please don&amp;#x27;t abuse the site like this again.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;newsguidelines.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;newsguidelines.html&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Big Tech Is Going After Health Care</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/26/technology/big-tech-health-care.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>aviv</author><text>Why do we need technology to help improve lives when so many diseases (type 2 diabetes, Crohn&amp;#x27;s, IBS, high blood pressure, arthritis, and dozens of others) can already be reversed and prevented by simply changing a person&amp;#x27;s diet and lifestyle habits? It&amp;#x27;s really quite insane that people would rather take pills for the rest of their lives to treat symptoms of a disease than actually getting rid of it altogether by giving up food habits.&lt;p&gt;Part of it is also due to traditional physicians being so dismissive of the role nutrition plays in a person&amp;#x27;s well being.</text></item><item><author>joshgel</author><text>Interesting you bring up heart failure readmissions. Not saying they aren&amp;#x27;t a problem, but here is a fascinating study in JAMA that argues that places with lower readmissions have higher (worse) mortality. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jamanetwork.com&amp;#x2F;journals&amp;#x2F;jamacardiology&amp;#x2F;article-abstract&amp;#x2F;2663213&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jamanetwork.com&amp;#x2F;journals&amp;#x2F;jamacardiology&amp;#x2F;article-abst...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Not sure we (I&amp;#x27;m a physician) understand even what the problems we need technology to solve are. But yes, we need technology to help (find and) solve some major problems that will improve lives.</text></item><item><author>blhack</author><text>Good.&lt;p&gt;I spent a few years working in a medical IoT startup, and the current state of the &amp;quot;mainstream&amp;quot; medical monitoring technology is not inspiring.&lt;p&gt;During a brainstorming meeting, I asked one of our cofounders, a physician, to tell me about some of the problems he had seen in health.  Don&amp;#x27;t try and solve it, just lets talk about problems.&lt;p&gt;He said that &lt;i&gt;by far&lt;/i&gt; one of the most common causes for re-hospitalization is congestive heart failure.  It&amp;#x27;s a super common problem, &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; it&amp;#x27;s actually really easy to catch (it has strong indicators).  When your heart begins to fail, depending on what side of it fails, your body will retain fluid (in the form of blood) in either your heart or your organs.  Regardless, you will bloat up, and gain weight quickly.&lt;p&gt;So if a patient is at risk for CHF, a nurse will monitor their weight every day (or multiple times a day) and watch for spikes.  If their weight spikes, a doctor will intervene in whatever way is necessary.&lt;p&gt;Can you imagine my frustration at hearing this?  It&amp;#x27;s this massive problem with an obvious (CHEAP!! SO FUCKING CHEAP!!) solution.&lt;p&gt;I spend $30 on a scale from amazon immediately, and about an hour after it arrived I had it connected to an android tablet and broadcasting its readings to a webservice.&lt;p&gt;We never went to market with that (long story).  Please, if you have the means to take something like that and scale it, do so.  You could save lives.  I&amp;#x27;m currently trying.  More people should be trying.  This stuff is so easy, and the impact that you could have is massive.&lt;p&gt;Also: please call your grandparents and just talk to them.  Ask them how they are feeling.  Social isolation (full disclosure: this is what my current project is trying to solve) is probably the area where we as software people could have the biggest impact.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>joshgel</author><text>Before you become &amp;quot;so dismissive&amp;quot; of traditional physicians, you try getting someone to radically alter their lifestyle for the promise of potential benefit in 10-20 years. Even if you can point to a few people that have done it, I can point you to plenty of data that says it&amp;#x27;s really hard and most people can&amp;#x27;t. Even technology may not help: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jamanetwork.com&amp;#x2F;journals&amp;#x2F;jama&amp;#x2F;fullarticle&amp;#x2F;2553448&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jamanetwork.com&amp;#x2F;journals&amp;#x2F;jama&amp;#x2F;fullarticle&amp;#x2F;2553448&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;Edit:
Also reversed is a pretty strong word. I haven&amp;#x27;t seen any compelling evidence that Crohn&amp;#x27;s can be cured with lifestyle change.</text></comment>