
New Disposable, Medical Camera Is the Size of a Grain of Salt - ph0rque
http://singularityhub.com/2011/04/11/new-disposable-medical-camera-is-the-size-of-a-grain-of-salt/
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lordlarm
It will be intresting to follow the development of video/image/network-
technology in collaboration with nano-technology in the future.

As stated in the article the bad side is surveillance and privacy - but the
aspect of small cool devices gets the geek-gene in me to cheer at the same
time.

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webXL
If it really is that cheap, citizens will be able to spy on the government and
large corporations, assuming the technology isn't outlawed for concerns about
citizens spying on each other.

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pavel_lishin
Citizens spying on _each other_ isn't what concerns lawmakers. In at least
Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland it's illegal to film police officers
doing their thing - although I should point out that protecting law
enforcement officers isn't the explicit reason:

"Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland are among the 12 states in which all
parties must consent for a recording to be legal unless, as with TV news
crews, it is obvious to all that recording is underway."

<http://gizmodo.com/#!5553765/are-cameras-the-new-guns>

In any case, pretty sure sneaking a camera into a private board meeting is as
illegal as it is for me to sneak one into your bedroom.

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webXL
Yeah, those anti-police surveillance laws are pretty lame.

My only point about being able to spy on the government and large corporations
was just an illegal counter measure to potential illegal actions by the usual
suspects. I would never condone such behavior ;)

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dr_
It's nice to note that the camera is inexpensive and as such disposable - but
if you think hospitals are going to reduce the rates they charge because their
costs have gone down, don't count on it. There's a reason they're still
charging $6 for one Tylenol, and costs aren't it.

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billybob
Speaking as a complete non-expert who has just listened to some economic
podcasts about health care, there's not __a __reason they charge $6 for
Tylenol. There's more like 100 intertwined reasons.

Healthcare economics is a nightmare of complexity. I'm not sure that it has to
be, but it is.

My guess is that the complexity of the thing is itself one of the biggest
problems. Kind of like how the US tax code has, in countless efforts to
encourage this or discourage that, been made so complicated that an entire
profession has arisen for trying to navigate it. Every dollar spent trying to
determine how much tax you owe is pure waste.

The healthcare industry is similarly full of waste. A friend of mine works at
a company whose whole reason for existence is to help doctors determine the
correct industry codes to put on their bills so that insurance companies will
pay them (the codes are different for each insurance carrier). The fact that
this is necessary is outrageous.

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dr_
With the new ICD schedule arriving soon, an entire new set of codes will have
to be learned, requiring physicians to become even more dependent on companies
like the one your friend works for.

