Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

> If developing nations with arguably inferior education systems can responsibly live with open access to medical treatment resources like diagnostic imaging and pharmaceuticals,

Well, the conditional in this if statement doesn't hold.

Yes, pharmaceuticals are open access in much of the developing world, but it has not happened responsibly. For example, Carbapenem-resistant bacteria are 20 times as common in India as they are in the U.S [1]

I really don't like this characterization of medical resource stewardship as "infantilization" because it implies some sort of elitism amongst doctors, when it's exactly the opposite. It's a system of checks and balances that limits the power afforded to any one person, no matter how smart they think they are. In a US hospital setting, doctors do not have 100% control over antibiotics. An antibiotic stewardship pharmacist or infectious disease specialist will deny and/or cancel antibiotics left and right, even if the prescribing doctor is chief of their department or the CMO.

[1] https://www.fic.nih.gov/News/GlobalHealthMatters/may-june-20...




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: