Category: General Medicine

“To ask the right question is already half the solution to the problem.” – Carl Jung
Malaria is a terrible disease.
Malaria kills 600,000 people every year, and incapacitates millions more.
Malaria kills more than a person a minute.
Malaria is the most devastating disease spread by Earth’s most lethal creature.
And yet, despite all of this, we still choose to do nothing about eliminating it.
Sure, we spend billions of dollars trying to find a cure for all sorts of things.
But as the gambling industry knows, trying is a powerful lure to get people to play a game that they have no intention of winning.
“Do or do not. There is no try.”
Perhaps Yoda had a point.
We go through elaborate scientific motions that look like progress but actually are just busywork designed to carve out our careers.
We glorify the power of the microorganism to mutate, evolve and evade all attempts to destroy it.
But what we don’t do is draw a line in the sand and hold ourselves accountable for continuing to allow millions of people to be killed by something we have the power to destroy.
So the question is: Why are we still putting up with Malaria?
The assumption is that we’re being forced to because we have no choice.
But if that assumption were proven to be false, then the truth behind our tolerance for malaria…is because it is of some benefit to us.
It’s a useful tool for controlling and destabilising millions of certain people groups.
The pursuit of a cure for malaria is worth more money than the deployment of a cure.
Malaria is a source of employment and revenue for millions of people.
Malaria research is a guaranteed cash cow for many companies.
Having people to help makes us feel better about ourselves.
If we cure Malaria, then what will we be left to do.
Our reputations and careers have been built for decades on fighting malaria. If we knock it out in the first round we’ll have to face the scary prospect of reinventing who we are.
We’re afraid of not being in charge if we allow “those people” to be empowered and come up from under the bondage of that disease.
These are questions that we Medics aren’t trained to ask.
But if we’ll be brave enough to ask different and difficult questions…And bold enough to respond to the answers we get…then we’ll discover the joy of annihilating problems that are impacting the lives of generations.
Btw, if you take out the word Malaria from this post and insert any other problem that we – or you personally – are tolerating, the same arguments hold true.
Remember, you can’t change what you choose to tolerate.

Next month, Brexit will officially be in force.

And when that happens, many of the doom-and-gloom projections will suddenly become a present reality.

Border access. The 236 daily truckloads of fruit and veg to the UK. Access to Interpol. The NHS supply chain of vital medicines.

But there’s at least one thing you don’t need to be worried about.

Accessing your Facebook account.

Barring a glitch at Facebook HQ, chances are excellent that you will still be able to check your newsfeed, post a story to your sister in Munich, tune into a Facebook Live broadcast by an author from Brussels and argue on Facebook Messenger with fellow GoT fanatics.

None of that will change at all…and that’s hugely important.

Because if we can count on being able to access Facebook, then is it possible that we can use this constant as a tool for stabilising other areas of lives post-Brexit?

I think so.

You see, Facebook is simply an example of a private, non-government dependent online platform that connects people from around the world.

What if communities around the UK decided to network with each other to create their own supply chains for whatever they need?

What if Doctors throughout Great Britain and Europe decided to network across traditional lines to create their own supply chain…and then invited patients to connect with it?

“How can we turn this into a Facebook?” might be a useful question to ask about every area that seems uncertain.

Image: Forbes.com

Don’t be fooled by the little old lady and the innocent robot that’s keeping her company and helping Grandma remember her medication.

That’s the hook of this story by Jennifer Hicks about Pillo health and Orbita’s healthcare companion robots:

Because the next stage, once Pillo health and Orbita achieve threshold market penetration& are acquired by Amazon/Google/Facebook et al will be:

This Healthcare companion robot that helps you remember your medication will then be the Healthcare companion robot that PRESCRIBES your medication.

And when there is a direct connection between patients and technology that is able to administer realtime 24/7 healthcare monitoring and provide relevant treatment from its associated global supply chain…how exactly are you as a Doctor still relevant in that scenario?

Seriously, how? A serious question worth taking a minute to answer right now.

In fact, it’s one that Doctors are answering in this survey that closes within the next 2 days. (Thursday 31st January 2019, 11.45p.m UTC-11)

Tech that’s comes through the backdoor of convenience ends up kicking the complacent out through the front door of progress.

Don’t be complacent!

Thoughts? 🙂

Here’s the original story in Forbes.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.” – Edmund Burke