Fully-automatic robot dentist performs first human procedure

Re:Fully-automatic robot dentist performs first human procedure by rscho on Thursday August 01, 2024 @01:21PM (#41131383)

All countries control rather strictly who can practice medicine. Yes, there is some amount of protectionism, but that happens almost everywhere. The reason is not only money, but also cultural issues. So yes, I expect that to be a valid criticism, but I don't think opening the floodgates would have the result you expect either. Access to care is a complex problem, and IMO not primarily limited by doc counts in the US.

Young docs would absolutely work less for less if possible, I think. Old docs wouldn't. IMO, that's reflected in the rise of big network providers such as Kaiser and friends.

In Europe, access to care is better IMO mainly because both patients and docs are far less aggressive, and often quite happy just doing nothing. Which is in fact the true problem about US healthcare: the culture of absolutism.

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Re:Fully-automatic robot dentist performs first human procedure by whimsicalism on Thursday August 01, 2024 @02:08PM (#41131853)

> All countries control rather strictly who can practice medicine

To pretend that the restrictions in other countries like Germany are at all comparable to the restrictions in the US is laughable. Just look at the work involved for a German doctor to legally practice in the US vs the reverse if the controls are so similarly strict (they're obviously not).

You are very clearly engaging in motivated reasoning in this thread.

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Re:Fully-automatic robot dentist performs first human procedure by rscho on Thursday August 01, 2024 @02:48PM (#41132235)

I agree the US is especially restrictive. But that's just the US doing its usual thing: treating everywhere else as a 3rd world country. Docs from developing countries also have a hard time in Europe. You clearly have an axe to grind with MDs.

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Re:Fully-automatic robot dentist performs first human procedure by throwaway2037 on Friday August 02, 2024 @01:15AM (#41136286)

    > cultural issues

Can you explain this part a bit more? Can you provide some concrete examples?

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Re:Fully-automatic robot dentist performs first human procedure by rscho on Friday August 02, 2024 @02:09AM (#41136509)

There is always a strong sense of national pride in medicine. Many people both inside and outside healthcare believe their nation has the best care, and make it an institution of sorts. It really seems stupid and insignificant, but the fact that foreigners are not feeling welcome has consequences. For example, US people often compare to german docs. Except I'm from Europe and having worked in the US, I can tell you I wouldn't go back to the US even for a million bucks. Why go somewhere you do 1.5x the hours, have a miserable quality of life and be treated like s##t, just to earn a little more ? So, if the US was to open the floodgates to foreign grads, I don't think the 'brain drain' would go the way people expect.

Within the US, the limitation of admission of US students into med school is another matter. And I think people are probably right to call out protectionism in this case. But I have no first hand experience, being a foreign graduate myself.

I'm just a random bloke having worked in Boston, though. So YMMV.

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