- Medical science handles variation by simply assuming that large enough samples will average out variation. This loses a ton of information as the “average person” is a construct that almost certainly doesn’t exist.
- news media on medical science glosses over all uncertainties in the name of clickbaity sensationalism.
- lawyers are the incentivized by our adversarial legal system to adopt aggressively hyperbolic interpretations of the science to sue people and extract money.
- medical associations then tweak policies to protect against malpractice
Run this loop enough times and lots of noise gets amplified.
My hope is the AI+sensors ushers in the era of truely personalized medicine.
> The doctors at the hospital were absolutely, unconditionally 100% certain that no other cause than violent shaking could ever explain blood around the brain and at the back of the eyes.
> As a precautionary measure, the hospital followed mandatory reporting statutes and my wife and I temporarily lost custody of David.
> I disturbingly realized that what I had been told at the hospital, namely that subdural and retinal hemorrhage in infants are almost always caused by violent shaking even in the absence of external evidence of trauma, was an assertion based on very weak scientific foundations.
> Thanks to our incredibly effective defense lawyer, we were cleared of all charges within two months, during which we stayed at the hospital 24/7 with David until we sorted out the legal procedures.
> Every case requires years of intense, dedicated efforts by an entire team of specialized lawyers and medical experts, but there are tens of thousands of cases and few experts willing to defend them.
Hospitals are definitely the weak link in this system. Just looking at the way the story is laid out, the solution is more lawyers and fewer, less expansive hospitals.