> They poke, they prod, they manipulate, they look, listen, and smell.

Rarely. Most visits are done in 5 minutes. The physician that takes their time to check everything like you claim almost does not exist anymore.

▲

whatsupdog 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Here in Canada ever since COVID most "visits" are a telephone call now. So the doctor just listens your words (same as a text input to an LLM) and orders tests (which can be uploaded to an LLM) if they need.

▲

zamadatix 9 hours ago | parent [-]

For a good 90% of typical visits to doctors this is probably fine.

The difference is a telehealth is much better at recognizing "I can't given an accurate answer for this over the phone, you'll need to have some tests done" or cast doubt on the patient's accuracy of claims.

Before someone points out telehealth doctors aren't perfect at this: correct, but that should make you more scared of how bad sycophantic LLMs are at the same - not willing to call it even.

	▲	caturopath 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> telehealth is much better at recognizing "I can't given an accurate answer for this over the phone, you'll need to have some tests done" I'm not sure this is true.

▲

sarchertech 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That depends entirely on what the problem is. You might not get a long examination on your first visit for common complaint with no red flags.

But even then just because you don’t think they are using most of their senses, doesn’t mean they aren’t.

▲

lukan 7 hours ago | parent [-]

It depends entirely on the local health care system and your health insurance. In germany for example it comes in 2 tiers. Premium or standard. Standard comes with no time for the patient. (Or not even being able to get a appointment)

	▲	sarchertech 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I don’t know anything about German healthcare. In the US people on Medicaid frequently use emergency rooms as primary care because they are open 24/7 and they don’t have any copays like people with private insurance do. These patients then get far more tests than they’d get at a PCP.