More Efficient Emergency Medical Treatment

Usedcarsalesman hasn't written any comments since July 2 and here it is July 9, so his goal of keeping to the above "new post every 4 days, so read regularly!" subject-blurb kind of went out the window or at least took a temporary hiatus. He should actually have a partner "Usedcarsalesman" (/woman) or two who can continue to bring "truth" to the world if "yours-truly" is in any way incapacitated or if people otherwise seek a little variety.                  

Anyway what's his excuse for this delay?  Well, Usedcarsalesman had to go to the Kaiser-Permanente ER (in Los Angeles on Sunset Blvd.) about 9:30pm on the evening of July 7 to have a little "emergency oversight" done. He finally got out of the Kaiser ER on the morning of July 8th in one piece and with a substantially lighter wallet (he has health insurance through Kaiser Permanente and he was a bit surprised by the "deductible" a Kaiser member has to pay after a Kaiser Hospital ER visit vs. if he had gone to a non-Kaiser hospital ER). Needless to say, July 8 and most of today were spent picking up loose ends from July 7 in an effort to prevent the occurrences that led to my hospital visit that day.

Obviously, when you have a brush with the medical community outside of your normal doctors visits, you may tend to evaluate your surroundings and see where things could be more efficient, easier, and better for both Doctors and Patients. After his ER stay on July 7, Usedcarsalesman certainly thought of a few areas where technology could make the provision of medical treatment more efficient for myself and a generation of aging Baby-Boomers:

1. A small, inexpensive, portable solid-state electronic record of a person's medical history. The US military has been working on something like this for a while, you know, medical history incorporated in to modern dog-tags. Great idea, I know that I would definitely want one. Such complete medical information would give doctors a frame of reference regarding a patients display of symptoms, thus potentially cutting out some of the stress involved in making a diagnosis. Doctors would still have to test the patient to insure that nothing was overlooked as they were making their diagnosis, but they would clearly be in a less stressful position. Sure, to some extent this already exists with Medic Alert (call the number on the bracelet and somebody will tell you for what the wearer is currently receiving treatment). I'm talking, instead, about a total life story of medical treatment, including all the details, medications, tests etc.
2. Team-based Medical Treatment involving doctors living in Different World Time Zones. Frankly, when the worst happens and you need medical help, often times its going to be late at night or in the AM. If medical doctors partnered up using modern telecommunications equipment and teleconferencing gear, they could effectively always work daytime hours while providing their patients with near 24 hr emergency consultative service (think a partnership of physicians across Australia/New Zealand, The U.S./Canada, and The United Kingdom). This would also eliminate the early morning emergency pages they may occasionally receive. Physicians at an ER might more quickly directly contact physicians working within such a 24 hour framework, thus again taking some of the stress out of treating the patients before them. Obviously, such a partnership would require taking different rules and jurisdictions in to account, which would be no picnic. But, it might help patients and medical doctors in many cases.
3. An "On-Star" System for People. General Motors offers it's satellite-served, On-Star system as an accessory on their cars; it causes a satellite to locate your equipped car's position, communicate with the driver and dispatch help to him/her if an accident was detected. What about having such a system for people? Basically, such a system would constantly remotely monitor your condition using a sensor and signal transmission gear of some kind. If the "On Star for People" system detects a problem with one of its users, it notifies the HQ, attempts to call you by cell-phone and/or help is dispatched to your location. Something like that.
4. Bring the Doctor to the Paramedics/Patient, rather than vice versa- Ok, typically, a paramedic is going to have a doctor on the phone when he is treating a person in trouble. So the Doctor is, by phone, effectively able to oversee and advise treatment from his location at the hospital. But, using teleconference and tele-presence gear, you could effectively bring a doctor to the paramedics and the location of the patient and allow the Doctor to directly, physically treat the patient at the scene. To some extent this is already being attempted by the US military in an effort to speed surgical treatment on or near a battlefield. Civilian society could use it too.
5. A small alarm Device w/bio-sensor which alerts people in a wide area if a person is having a medical difficulty. Look, bracelets and jewelry are nice, but they are inanimate and require a passerby to come up and read the bejeweled item to find out what is wrong with the wearer; if the rescuing party is especially ambitious in his or her care of you, he or she may call the Medic Alert phone number listed on the bracelet and get more details about the wearer's condition. Usedcarsalesman says, if a person is on a city street and dying, he or she is not going to mind so much if a loud, electronic alarm sounds and a loud voice message plays from a device on his person saying "This man/woman/child has "Fill-in-Blank" Disease, please do not be alarmed and provide him with this or that assistance and he/she will gratefully pay you (PayPal) you $100 cash for a few minutes of inconvenience!!!. That kind of thing. Usedcarsalesman remembers the old U.Va. Sociology class, 'Kitty Genovese-" story, where a woman was getting murdered and yelling for help as people watched, but nobody came to her aid. Conclusion was that she should have yelled "Fire!" instead of help. Apparently, when peoples' property is at risk, they tend to take action (at least in NYC). So, Usedcarsalesman says put some money on the line and people will definitely come to your aid (in this case, no property at risk, but financial "property" to be gained).

Usedcarsalesman realizes that all of the aforementioned thoughts will be cheap and easy to implement. So, we'll give business and government 24 hours to work cooperatively to implement these changes, starting now. :)