
Transcontinental anaesthesia: a pilot study (2013) - dluc
http://bja.oxfordjournals.org/content/110/5/758.full
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mikeash
Holy cow, that's a confusing title. I clicked on it trying to figure out why
you'd give pilots anesthesia on a transcontinental flight.

In case anyone hits the comments first and has the same confusion: it's a
"pilot study" in the sense that it's the first of its kind, and
"transcontinental" refers to controlling the process remotely. Basically: can
your anesthesiologist be off-site and do his work over the internet instead of
having to be in the operating room?

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srean
My first thoughts were on similar lines: A study on how to put economy class
transcontinental-flight passengers out of their misery, pack them like
sardines and resuscitate them on arrival. Wierdly enough, I might be tempted
to opt for such a dystopian travel machinery than the one that exists now.

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mikeash
If it could be demonstrated to be safe, I have trouble seeing any downside to
your idea!

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Kenji
Probably because anaesthesia has significant risks, and even if it was safe,
most people would spend the first few hours on arrival puking (a very common
side effect of anaesthesia).

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sargun
Even at that, you have to be able to evacuate a commercial airliner in ~90
seconds. How do you fix this?

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dantillberg
It doesn't have to be an airliner; if you get to "sleep" for the whole
journey, why not stretch the trip to a few days or weeks on a train or bus or
boat?

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schoen
Unfortunately, being unconscious and relatively immobile for that long would
be extremely bad for your health. People in a coma require a lot of
specialized nursing care -- for example to avoid developing bed sores -- and
anyone immobile for a long time risks cardiovascular problems and muscle
atrophy. You can get quite deconditioned from just a week or two of bed rest.

The "stasis" approach for long trips would probably have to be something
higher-tech than just regular anesthesia...

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Moshe_Silnorin
There are powerful forces disallowing such
innovations:[https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.technologyreview.com/s/60114...](https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.technologyreview.com/s/601141/automated-
anesthesiologist-suffers-a-painful-defeat/amp/?client=safari)

~~~
amelius
> But the professional group said the idea of a machine replacing human
> expertise was dangerous.

Not surprising given that those doctors' job is on the line here.

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achr2
Anaesthesiologist seems like one of the first doctors that could be entirely
replaced with a robotic system. They are basically there to monitor and asses
multiple vital factors, which seems entirely appropriate for a control system.

~~~
mysterypie
Pharmacist is the medical job that is already completely obsolete and could be
eliminated if not for unions and inertia.

Pharmacists almost never do compounding anymore. They just take pills off a
shelf and hand it to you. If manufacturers and doctors could agree on standard
drug regimens, counting out pills would be unnecessary as well (or could be
replaced by minimum wage labor or robotic/vending machine-like devices). Most
pharmacies have a computerized drug-interaction checker, so even that minor
function of the pharmacist is unneeded.

I wonder how recent pharmacy graduates feel about spending years of studying
and training and major expense for what turns out (in today's world) to be a
clerical job?

I expect that within 5 to 10 years, pharmacist will be one of those jobs like
telephone operator or travel agent that used to employ hundreds of thousands
of people, but is now only seen in old movies.

~~~
maxerickson
Machines already count the pills.

(top search result: [http://kirbylester.com/kirby-lester-products-and-
technology....](http://kirbylester.com/kirby-lester-products-and-
technology.html) )

Pharmacists are still well paid, which implies they are doing something of
value (even at big chain stores they have good salaries).

~~~
mysterypie
I mean completely automated with no human except for the customer. Customer
feeds in his prescription and gets back a container of drugs and a receipt and
printouts of side effects to be aware of.

Regarding well paid: That's just union (licensing agency) controlling the
supply of pharmacists. Look at the airline industry: United Airlines pilots
who started in the 1970s with powerful unions still make $300k a year. Newly
hired pilots today make $25k now that the unions lost their stranglehold.

~~~
ovi256
Philip Greenspun makes a compelling argument that the new pilots making $25k
and working the longest hours under the worst condition is a desired side-
effect of union negotiations. The senior pilots, controlling the union and
thus its negotiating policy, improve their outcome as much as possible. The
junior employees are only nominally represented by the union, and their
welfare is not a objective of the negotiations.

Source: [http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/unions-and-
airlines](http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/unions-and-airlines)

