

Offer HN: Medical Perspective - alphaoverlord

I am a first year medical student at UCSF. I really like the community at HN and it's a continuous source of interesting and useful information. I want to contribute however I can. I think that means:<p>1) I think we need more technically oriented physicians. If anyone is currently or thinking about applying to medical school, send me an email, I'd be happy to give advice or critique your application.<p>2. If you are interested in starting a project involving medicine, either for physicians and patients, I'd more than happy to give you my take and suggest possible strengths/challenges. This would be based purely non-technical perspective and based on my experience as a physician-in-training.
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hamilcarbarca
Do your professors talk about the state of healthcare in the USA / share their
opinions with you?

Could you estimate in rough percentages, if at all: Of your peers in medical
school, how many of them are interested in becoming a doctor for purely
altruistic reasons? How many defaulted to med school because it is something
appropriate for intelligent people and pleases their parents?

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alphaoverlord
> Do your professors talk about the state of healthcare in the USA / share
> their opinions with you?

Yes, especially healthcare reform. As you can imagine, it's a game-changer and
there is significant discussion on how they will be impacted. I think the
general conclusion I've gotten is that the situation is still very fluid, and
most people in medicine are as confused/uncertain of its effect as most
laypoeple.

> Could you estimate in rough percentages, if at all: Of your peers in medical
> school, how many of them are interested in becoming a doctor for purely
> altruistic reasons?

I think there are a variety of factors and influences that cause an individual
to want to become a doctor and most medical students aren’t seeking to become
martyrs (ie. not purely altruistic). It would be just as simplistic as to say
Facebook was founded solely because Zuckerberg wanted create something. While
the ability to help people is important factor, the amazing complexity and
beauty of the human body, the opportunity to work in a constantly changing,
dynamic environment, the ability to apply science, and the respectability of
the profession are also motivators. I would say, in many ways and to most med
students, these factors outweigh the financial rewards (if that's what you
meant by non-altruistic reasons).

> How many defaulted to med school because it is something appropriate for
> intelligent people and pleases their parents?

I think that is an incredibly difficult question to answer, but I will try to
rationalize my non-answer. It is slightly difficult (no exaggeration :P) to
get into medical school – if a person is not motivated or passionate, it is
difficult to simply default into medical school. That said, this question goes
back to the previous question about motives and incentives. I would say a
significant proportion of my classmates have a significant experience with
physicians – either as a patient or having relatives who are physicians.
Whether having physician parents and that it might “please their parents” is
an important factor, I wouldn’t know as I did not have that kind of
background.

I personally do not think that “defaulting” is a common occurrence because at
my school, there is a large proportion of non-traditional applicants who have
had previous careers. With classmates ranging from former investment bankers,
Olympic swimmers, opera singers, and park rangers, I imagine they methodically
thought about the opportunity cost of changing careers. Too bad we don’t have
many former developers. :) For better or worse, medicine is a desirable
profession, and I would venture to guess that a lot of people will at least
try or consider a career in medicine. Without then actually developing passion
or interest, medicine is a tough path to continue.

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hamilcarbarca
Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful responses, good luck.

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kyro
I'm a first year med student as well, and there are a few other
students/physicians on HN interested in tech; so you're not alone!

Edit: What's your email address?

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alphaoverlord
Just added to my profile.

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mudil
Can you check our blog (medgadget.com), and let us know what we can do
differently? Also, any ideas on how we can attract more clinicians to our
website?

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alphaoverlord
Hi! A quick synopsis of my impression:

At first glance, I am not sure what your target audience is. Is the idea to
blog about all new ideas related to medicine? I see descriptions of everything
ranging from toothbrushes to new imaging modalities. There are tags to sort
through the different posts, but not as pronounced or obvious as it could be.

Secondly, what are you trying to achieve by attracting clinicians to your
website? My impression is that you are simply looking from traffic (regardless
the type), and trying to monetize with ads? Is that correct? Personally, I
would say clinicians are slightly more skeptical about new
inventions/techniques, and although not disinterested in new findings, would
be reluctant to turn to a blogs for such information. This is especially true
when it seems like a lot of the posts are rehashes of individual companies PR
and there are a lot of ads. I would ask what additional value does the website
add or function does it fulfill?

As a general rule of thumb, I think it is easier to attract viewers if there
is a sense of community or two-way communication. My guess is that to attract
more clinicians, there needs to be more value added. Maybe talk about things
that interest physicians (how such a device impacts reimbursement or saves
time, interesting cases and how those devices prevented some complication)
After a long day at work, I doubt clinicians would be interested in learning
about a new one-purpose use device that marginally improves outcomes in a
specific population of patients. HN works because it combines technical
information with both interesting social commentary and discussion.

