Heitzso wrote: > > my mother (real life) contracted Guillain Barre > Syndrome from a flu shot recently and just got out of the hospital > (she's able to walk, but barely). Yesterday I heard of another GB > case from this year's flu shots. But when my mother first went to > an emergency room she was turned away. It wasn't until she lost the > ability to walk that she was correctly diagnosed and treatment started. > I wonder whether access to large federated data stores of recent > symtoms and diagnosis would have caught her GB on the first ER visit?
The sad reality is that "large federated data stores" have existed for years; they are called "medical textbooks" and they are amazingly easy and fast for the expert user -- but that we humans sometimes fail to experience that little click of cognitive dissonance that says, "Whoa! Case of premature 'closure' of diagnostic thinking here! Dig deeper on this case!" The "large federated data store" that is currently most useful to me when I hear the little "click of cognitive dissonance" is -- hold your breath -- google.com. If I enter proper medical jargon, I get only medical hits, and sometimes very, very helpful ones. But I have a Linux cptr hooked to a T-1 line in every exam room with a browser up and running. And the textbooks are 30 feet away, so they get consulted second. Third, I call up a smart colleague and see if he can break the mental ice. But... it all starts with the recognition that here's something strange: we docs all fall victim at one point or another to the truth that "common diseases commonly occur" and after a few years of looking for and not finding medical zebras, the urgency of continuing to look does abate, just as for the sentry who stands guard for years against a enemy who never shows. So it's not more data we need, it's a more perfect human; and silicon ain't gonna help. I'm sorry that your mom fell afoul of human frailty. Dan Johnson md
