[ot] Big Brother - another step closer

[sean_q]

Here's a new technology that can predict the onset
of medical problems by monitoring a patient's behavior:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/apps-alert-the-doctor-when-trouble-looms/

Soon the same technology could be used to detect pre-criminals
(remember _Minority Report_?), political incorrectness and
other forms of Thoughtcrime.

"We believe in bucking the system that's built to smash individuals
like bugs on a windshield." -- Harley Riders Creed video

Scary stuff, eh.

SQ

[The Older Gentleman]

Post by sean_q
Here's a new technology that can predict the onset

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/apps-alert-the-doctor-when-trou
ble-looms/

Seems good to me.

"Dr. Kaplin's concerns include whether such systems might send alerts
that people may be sick when they're not, such as people who aren't
depressed or in pain but simply have downtime, or perhaps the flu. "

Can't see any difference between this and 'normal' hypochondriacs,
actually. Might even thin the numbers down.

A problem we have in the UK is that you have to make an appointment to
see your doctor. However, in A&E departments, you can just turn up (and
then, unless you're very lucky, wait in a queue, but even then it's
quicker).

So people with minor ailments or, worse still, nothing wrong with them
at all are clogging up the A&E waiting rooms. Triage sorts them out, but
it still delays people who *really* have something wrong with them.

As I discovered a couple of months ago. In my case it was a 40-minute
wait for triage and then: "You. Inside and on that couch. Now!"

Post by sean_q
Soon the same technology could be used to detect pre-criminals
(remember _Minority Report_?), political incorrectness and
other forms of Thoughtcrime.

I do hope you had your tongue rammed firmly into your cheek when you
wrote that.

[Tom $herman (-_-)]

Post by sean_q

Post by sean_q
Here's a new technology that can predict the onset

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/apps-alert-the-doctor-when-trou
ble-looms/
Seems good to me.
"Dr. Kaplin's concerns include whether such systems might send alerts
that people may be sick when they're not, such as people who aren't
depressed or in pain but simply have downtime, or perhaps the flu. "
Can't see any difference between this and 'normal' hypochondriacs,
actually. Might even thin the numbers down.
A problem we have in the UK is that you have to make an appointment to
see your doctor. However, in A&E departments, you can just turn up (and
then, unless you're very lucky, wait in a queue, but even then it's
quicker).
So people with minor ailments or, worse still, nothing wrong with them
at all are clogging up the A&E waiting rooms. Triage sorts them out, but
it still delays people who *really* have something wrong with them.
As I discovered a couple of months ago. In my case it was a 40-minute
wait for triage and then: "You. Inside and on that couch. Now!"

Called "Emergency Rooms" in the US. Oh shoot, I should not have told
you this. ;)

Our emergency rooms are clogged by the 40+ million people without
insurance who go there for *all* medical care, since the hospitals are
required to provide minimum acute care before dumping the person back
out on the street.

[J. Clarke]

Post by Tom $herman (-_-)

Post by sean_q

Post by sean_q
Here's a new technology that can predict the onset

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/apps-alert-the-doctor-when-trou
ble-looms/
Seems good to me.
"Dr. Kaplin's concerns include whether such systems might send alerts
that people may be sick when they're not, such as people who aren't
depressed or in pain but simply have downtime, or perhaps the flu. "
Can't see any difference between this and 'normal' hypochondriacs,
actually. Might even thin the numbers down.
A problem we have in the UK is that you have to make an appointment to
see your doctor. However, in A&E departments, you can just turn up (and
then, unless you're very lucky, wait in a queue, but even then it's
quicker).
So people with minor ailments or, worse still, nothing wrong with them
at all are clogging up the A&E waiting rooms. Triage sorts them out, but
it still delays people who *really* have something wrong with them.
As I discovered a couple of months ago. In my case it was a 40-minute
wait for triage and then: "You. Inside and on that couch. Now!"

Called "Emergency Rooms" in the US. Oh shoot, I should not have told
you this. ;)
Our emergency rooms are clogged by the 40+ million people without
insurance who go there for *all* medical care, since the hospitals are
required to provide minimum acute care before dumping the person back
out on the street.

And the ones whose physicians are bumbling incompetents. I have had a
surgeon and two dentists tell me that I have an unusually high threshold
of pain--if I say something hurts, it _hurts_. So after three days of
severe pain I call my idiot doctor and tell him what hurts and he
without looking at me says "It's probably constipation" and prescribes a
laxative that's less effective (and more expensive) than the one I had
already taken. So I said screw this and went down to the emergency
room, where the receptionist took one look at me and called a doctor.
Turned out to be an obstructed bile duct. If your damned doctor can't
be assed to make a proper diagnosis then why waste time on him?

[J. Clarke]

Post by sean_q

Post by sean_q
Here's a new technology that can predict the onset

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/apps-alert-the-doctor-when-trou
ble-looms/
Seems good to me.
"Dr. Kaplin's concerns include whether such systems might send alerts
that people may be sick when they're not, such as people who aren't
depressed or in pain but simply have downtime, or perhaps the flu. "
Can't see any difference between this and 'normal' hypochondriacs,
actually. Might even thin the numbers down.

Just as long as it's entirely voluntary and none of the information
obtained is ever released to the government without a subpoena.

I don't know if they do it in the UK, but in some states in the US a
diagnosis of sleep apnea can result in driver's license suspension, and
one's physician is required to monitor one's use of a CPAP (and by
"monitor" I mean read the data off the machine) and report it before one
has any hope of getting one's license back.

This sounds like more of the same.

We need a Constitutional Amendment that prohibits the government from
acting as a busybody.

Post by sean_q
A problem we have in the UK is that you have to make an appointment to
see your doctor. However, in A&E departments, you can just turn up (and
then, unless you're very lucky, wait in a queue, but even then it's
quicker).
So people with minor ailments or, worse still, nothing wrong with them
at all are clogging up the A&E waiting rooms. Triage sorts them out, but
it still delays people who *really* have something wrong with them.
As I discovered a couple of months ago. In my case it was a 40-minute
wait for triage and then: "You. Inside and on that couch. Now!"

The bit that annoys me with the emergency room is when there's no need
for triage and you still wait forever. Show up at 2 on a week night, no
patients, and still wait and wait and wait and wait.

Post by sean_q

Post by sean_q
Soon the same technology could be used to detect pre-criminals
(remember _Minority Report_?), political incorrectness and
other forms of Thoughtcrime.

I do hope you had your tongue rammed firmly into your cheek when you
wrote that.

[The Older Gentleman]

Post by J. Clarke
I don't know if they do it in the UK, but in some states in the US a
diagnosis of sleep apnea can result in driver's license suspension

Not AFAIK. Epilepsy, though, sure.

[Tom $herman (-_-)]

Post by J. Clarke
I don't know if they do it in the UK, but in some states in the US a
diagnosis of sleep apnea can result in driver's license suspension, and
one's physician is required to monitor one's use of a CPAP (and by
"monitor" I mean read the data off the machine) and report it before one
has any hope of getting one's license back.

It is just a SD card, so the use data could easily be forged.

[J. Clarke]

Post by Tom $herman (-_-)

Post by J. Clarke
I don't know if they do it in the UK, but in some states in the US a
diagnosis of sleep apnea can result in driver's license suspension, and
one's physician is required to monitor one's use of a CPAP (and by
"monitor" I mean read the data off the machine) and report it before one
has any hope of getting one's license back.

It is just a SD card, so the use data could easily be forged.

You have to remember to forge it before the physician accesses your CPAP
by its Internet connection, and since you don't know when he's going to
do that . . .

[Tom $herman (-_-)]

Post by J. Clarke

Post by Tom $herman (-_-)

Post by J. Clarke
I don't know if they do it in the UK, but in some states in the US a
diagnosis of sleep apnea can result in driver's license suspension, and
one's physician is required to monitor one's use of a CPAP (and by
"monitor" I mean read the data off the machine) and report it before one
has any hope of getting one's license back.

It is just a SD card, so the use data could easily be forged.

You have to remember to forge it before the physician accesses your CPAP
by its Internet connection, and since you don't know when he's going to
do that . . .

Only if it has a wireless modem or a wired Internet connection. While
information can be sent by multiplexing over power lines, I doubt CPAP
machines use that technology.

[sean_q]

Post by The Older Gentleman

Post by sean_q
Soon the same technology could be used to detect pre-criminals
(remember _Minority Report_?), political incorrectness and
other forms of Thoughtcrime.

I do hope you had your tongue rammed firmly into your cheek when you
wrote that.

Two things to be aware of here:

1. George Orwell, the author of _1984_ (published in 1948) was British.
He was prophetic with that book, because things he predicted are
coming true.

For example Telescreens - (TV's that watch you) - check out the uproar
in the Lower Marion School District where a school spied on its
students with computer cams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District

The most disturbing aspect of the LMSD affair is that the school
employee perps didn't seem to see anything particularly wrong with
spying on students (until the huge media uproar and investigation
by the FBI).

2. In 2000 the British gov't passed the RIP Act which basically says
that UK citizens have no fundamental human right to the privacy
of their documents.

_This_ in the nation that gave us the Magna Charta!

I was being tongue-in-cheek, but not firmly.

SQ

[sean_q]

Further to my O/P:

: US SCHOOL TAG TRACKER PROJECT PROMPTS COURT ROW
:
: A court challenge has delayed plans to expel a Texan student
: for refusing to wear a radio tag that tracked her movements.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20461752

SQ