Was just talking to a lab tech at a hospital.

It seems that some of the newer lab machines require internet access because you can't run lab tests unless you have a paid subscription to use the machine. No credits on the subscription, no tests.

I mention this b/c a lot of commenters here are saying "but why would you ever hook up a freezer to the internet??"

I find that type of comment fascinating as many of the people on HN worked for firms that built the technology required to use internet based subscription models.

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titzer an hour ago | parent | next [-]

This future is just so damn depressing and I think a lot of people are in active denial.

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gregglain an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

And it pays well too.

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rylando 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There’s even more hospitals and clinics who have a radiology department but no Radiologist onsite to read the exams. It’s all sent offsite to remote Radiologists sometimes 100+ miles away.

Disrupt the internet and good luck getting your emergent studies read by doctors who don’t look at anything to do with the scans and X-rays they order other than the Radiologists report.

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fc417fc802 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That seems unrelated to me. I can (for example) email an image to someone anywhere in the world without ever connecting my camera to the internet.

	▲	hughw an hour ago \| parent [-]
		a) USB sticks are a vector for infection too you know b) Inserting a clumsy sneakernet step into a time critical life or death decision might be a bad idea.

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octoberfranklin 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Surgeons look at X-rays all the time in the OR. Especially ortho.

In a crisis, the surgeons will do the radiology. And they will bitch about it, but it will get done.

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zdragnar 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I can see how a subscription model would be appealing if it was in lieu of outright buying expensive equipment. Operating expenses for some machines are cheap but the machines are expensive enough that the tests themselves are expensive to pay off the machine.

Of course, the reality is more likely that the hospital still has to buy things and the subscription is a net loss on top of that so patients (or the people paying for the care) are screwed twice.

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enoint 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Or the equipment is otherwise expensive up-front to a small clinic. Ophthalmology, for example. The subscription feature is cheaper than becoming a financier.

	▲	bunderbunder an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I don’t think I have ever even once been in a product design session where the stated reason for going with a subscription model was, “So the customer can pay us less money.”
	▲	Grimeton 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		How?

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alexpotato 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It also creates a HARD dependency on internet access.