At 17:05 28/02/2009, you wrote:
>Ewan Davis wrote:
> >> Sandra Pickering wrote:
> >>
> >>> Certainly not the answer to the same question as this one.
> >>>
> >>> No - the answer to the problem for which I pay taxes.  I still
> >>> haven't heard any reason why we shouldn't have an Open Source
> >>> medical system with amateur doctors.  (It's Friday - I'll come back
> >>> after the weekend to check for good arguments against it.)
> >> You won't find them.
> >> We do have that.
> >>
> >
> > Hi Sandra,
> >
> > Is what you are trying to say is that we should leave IT to the IT
> > professionals and Health to the Health Professionals? - I say Bollocks to
> > both!
>
>
>I read it, perhaps incorrectly, a completely different way...
>
>That medics are but bit players in the life, illness and ultimately
>death of our patients, and do not/should not, own their illness nor
>their "solutions"

As a patient, sometimes I need help with I, sometimes I need help for me.

Me can be treated like a car.  It can be given to a mechanic in the 
expectation that it will be returned sorted.  I don't necessarily 
need or want to know too many of the details provided the mechanic 
does a good job at a reasonable price, but sometimes I do want to 
know more to figure out whether the mechanic can be trusted.  I still 
don't want to do the work myself.

"I" am a more complex problem, and anyway can't be deposited with a mechanic.

We would do our patients, ourselves and our colleagues a serious 
disservice if our mindset led to an inflexible paradigm in which all 
patients were told to go away and cure themselves.  Perhaps not 
often, but sometimes doctors should take ownership of illnesses and solutions.

As to amateur doctors.... well there are about 60 million amateur 
doctors in the UK and some of them are bloody brilliant. As far as 
I'm concerned we're not in competition.  However if someone finds 
themselves needing more help than those amateurs who happen to be 
available can offer, doctors will generally use what is almost 
entirely open source knowledge to do the best they can - and thank 
heavens for it.

Julian