RE: Hackers and Painters and Lawyers and Docs

["Brent Fulgham" <address@hidden>]

> > P.S.  If we could just get a doctor on the list, I could 
> > start asking about this pain in my shoulder I get when I move
> > like *this*...
> 
> As a long-time lurker (and incidentally an M.D.), allow me to provide 
> you with the *definitive* therapy and recommend that you quit moving 
> your shoulder like *this*.  That'll be $250.00....and please refrain 
> from discussing any complications with the lawyers on the list.

Excellent, Doctor -- I'm cured!  The check is, as they say, in the mail.

> The thread made me reflect on close collaboration in medicine.  Outside 
> residency training (the on-the-job, closely supervised training new docs 
> get after graduation from medical school) you rarely have another 
> physician working that closely with you in solving problems, although 
> good physicians call for outside expertise regularly.  The model is
> that one physician "owns" the patient and is responsible for diagnosis and 
> care, but has to recognize his/her own limitations and seek help when 
> needed.  IMO, diagnosis and treatment and physician education all 

The doctor's I've been most impressed with are the ones that will honestly
tell they aren't qualified to deal with a particular issue, and refer
you to a specialist.

This is getting way off-topic, but it does bring to mind another minor
comparison with Software -- that of the "death march" programming effort
(not unlike residency I would imagine -- though without the element of
potential death.)

We now require truck drivers to get a certain amount of sleep in a
particular period of time, and yet we are perfectly happy with interns
working round-the-clock in our emergency rooms.  I've heard that studies
show that such Doctors do not make more mistakes than well-rested
ones, but if that's true why is there a discrepency for truck drivers.
I know that I make far more bugs after working for 12 or more hours,
but that could just be me.

-Brent