[extropy-chat] Health data
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
sentience at pobox.com
Fri Jun 16 22:39:46 UTC 2006
Damien Sullivan wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 16, 2006 at 12:02:14PM -0700, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
>
>>...didn't Robin Hanson just get through presenting the evidence that
>>increased healthcare spending does squat to decrease mortality?
>
> Yep.
>
> Did that cause anyone to decide to not go see the doctor the next time
> they're sick? Will you, Eliezer, skip the doctor's office? Will Robin
> refrain from taking his children there (assuming his wife would let
> him)?
It's certainly causing me to be more cautious around the prospect of
surgery. If at least some doctor visits are effective, that implies
that some of the visits are anti-effective - costly and harmful - to
balance out the effective visits. I believe the statistic is that
one-third of hospital deaths are iatrogenic.
--
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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