[ExI] internet as the biggest advance in medicine ever

[BillK]

On 7/12/10, Tomasz Rola wrote:
> This is rather doubtful, at least for me (even though I am far from
>  being/becoming/considering a medic). Would you trust opinions on your
>  profesional subjects from someone who did not have one or two years of
>  calculus? He could read a lot and with no calculus he would still sit in
>  the middle of the woods. He could be great practitioner, but without big
>  enough knowledge equivalent he would not even be able to understand why
>  this worked in his case and why it may or may not work in some other
>  cases.
>
<snip>
>
>  Right now, there are pioneers and excitement. Pioneers are cool, they
>  think and quite often are above the average. Come back two years later and
>  you will find "patient 5.0 institutions" on the internet, selling tap
>  water. Water is optimistic case. Some hundred years ago they were selling
>  uranium enriched "energy drinks" (well, sure, there were people swearing
>  to feel the boost and I doubt all of them were being paid for this).
>
>  Personally, I am expecting a come back of shamans. While old shamans could
>  be nice people, the new ones will just be cheap. Maybe "cheap" is the
>  right keyword here.
>
>  As usually, problem of rare diseases could be solved IMHO by making an
>  effort into organism modelling based on its DNA (and whatever else is a
>  worthy parameter). This would give some realistic and cheap (in the longer
>  run at least) possibility. But, "just cheap" is easier than "realistic and
>  cheap". Two ways of being cheap. Monkeys don't understand. ;-/
>
>


Medical fraud is a huge business. Just look in your spam mailbox!

You have a big problem sorting out valid information from the torrent
of scams, frauds, misleading ads, exaggerated benefits,
publicity-seeking nutters or people with a book or potions to sell
you.

There are already self-help groups on the internet for specific
diseases. e.g. cancer, arthritis, old age, etc. where patients discuss
what might help each other.


BillK