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Week 6 [07.05-13.05.2018] Should health-care system be redesigned?

Almost every country has major health-care system problems. Each year there are more and more people that needs professional help, hospitals become much more crowded, expenses are increasing. What can we do with this? What if we redesigned our health-care system so that doctors would be paid to keep people healthy rather than cure them, when they are already ill? Please watch video below, in which Matthias Mullenbeck talks about such scenario.


Questions:
What do you think about mullenbeck’s idea?
Do you visit to the doctor preventively or do you visit him/her when you are already ill?
Do you lead a healthy lifestyle?

Comments

Lukasz Mroczek said…
I don't like visiting doctors and hospitals and I only visit them when I really need. That's why I have to say that I don't visit doctor preventively. Instead of that I often try to keep my health at good level but honestly I have to say that I don't lead ha helathy lifestyle. Of course when it's cold outside I often like to be clothed properly but for example I don't care if food I'm buying is healthy or I often don't sleep enough. To sum up I always try to prevent myself from illness but without leading a very healthy lifestyle.
I think the idea of this lecturer is very interesting. Unfortunately, it takes years to realize something like that. In addition, monitoring the health of every human requires huge financial outlay and a large number of doctors. Symptomatic treatment is much cheaper. Certainly such an approach would reduce the incidence of certain diseases, however, many cases are still unexplored and it is not known how to treat them, as well as a person may be injured and this can not be predicted and doctors can not prevent it.
I believe that people's way of thinking should be changed first. Many people go to the doctor only when they are really sick, including me. I try to lead a healthy lifestyle. I try to have a healthy diet, rich in vitamins and without preservatives.
Unknown said…
Bold solution to the known problem. Sounds great in theory. However, this idea would have to be first tested on smaller scale. Even without it, it’s evident how difficult it would be to transform the current system into the one proposed. One thing makes my wonder. Whether in that new system companies would have actually any insensitive in treating ill patient as opposed to only keeping large population in good health. And if so, would that be a better outcome for general population or worse.
Most of the time I visit doctor when I’m ill but I do it also preventively just like I try to stay healthy. Eat well exercise.
Unknown said…
I personally don’t remember when I was with my family doctor. Maybe also because my parents are doctors. I will tell you something interesting. Recently, my parents opened a branch with a FREE PHYSIOTHERAPY for children because they got money from UE. It is very interesting because as we know it is very difficult to get to physiotherapy in Poland and the queues are very large. Despite efforts of, me ,my parents and other people by sending e-mails and leaflets, posting it on Facebook, there aren’t many patients, is very strange. It seems to me that someone blocks it because you know how something is free, no one will earn. I think the Mullenbeck idea is good. And I lead a very healthy way of life.
Unknown said…
I find Matthias's idea very interesting and practical. I even think that this concept may already be practised in some countries. Prevention is always better than cure and much cheaper. Today many people all around the world who suffer from health issues don't have enough money to fully recover from diseases and idea presented by the speaker can be a solution to the problem. Still many can agree that this idea is too ambitious because it requires full reforming of health care system, which requires tons of new investments, but in long run, it might pay off.
I visit doctors sometimes during illness and for preventive purposes but it is not something I do very often.
Yes, in general, I try to lead healthy lifestyle.
Jakub Nietupski said…
Presented idea is very interesting but it is hard to predict how it would work in practice.
I try to avoid doctors as much as I can because of all of the trouble and queues etc. so I generally visit doctors only when I really have to.
I think that I lead rather healthy life, although I work as a programmer so maybe I have too sedentary lifestyle.
Unknown said…
The idea seems to be very cool, but I am not sure, that it would work well, and how many years would pass. And I am agree that almost every country has some health-care system problems, because it is a popular topic to discuss with people from abroad, so I have heard many negative opinions. Well, I try to avoid doctors and hospitals. Mainly hospitals - queues, dirt, crowds - hate it. I visit hospitals only when I am ill. I visit stomatologist twice a year no matter what, but I am not afraid of them. I just want to prevent the problems with my teeth. I can't say that my lifestyle is completely healthy, but I really try when I have time.
Maciej Główka said…
I agree with you, that visit in most hospitals in Poland, which are still quite old, isn't the nicest thing to do ;) I wish you stay healthy as long as you can.
Maciej Główka said…
I 100% agree with you. I hope that people's way of thinking will change towards Matthias's idea.
Maciej Główka said…
Of course such radical change should be tested firstly on smaller scale. Would it be a better outcome for general population? That's very interesting question. I'm sure that many medical companies wouldn't be so happy from outcomes of proposed health-care system transformation...
Maciej Główka said…
Your problem is very interesting. I'm curious why your parents have small number of patients. As you mentioned above, I think it might be connected with lack of trust in free things. I hope that it will change and people will benefit from your parent's help.
Maciej Główka said…
I've read somewhere few months ago that USA founded fitness cards for obese residents. I can't remember numbers, but government estimated many millions of savings. I hope some day such project will come to Poland.
Maciej Główka said…
I agree with you that queues discourage many people. I think it's one of the biggest problem governments need to solve.
Working as a programmer isn't so healthy. Sitting 8 hours a day isn't the best thing we can do for our spine ;)
Maciej Główka said…
I also visit dentist once/twice a year. One thing I hate really bad is the sound of drilling. I think many people can agree with me, that this sound is one of the worst in the world..
Maciej Nowak said…
The idea sounds interesting, but it's hard for me to tell if it could work. First, the funding of this program would have to be carefully planned and I wonder how big budget would have to be so every person could get treatment. Secondly, it would require from people to examine themselves much more frequently which would take time and money from budget for every examination. I only visit doctors when i really have to and fortunately it happens very rarely. I do not lead a very healthy lifestyle as i should exercise more, however, i don't have any problems because of it yet.
This is good point to make improvements to current health system and take care before human was ill. We need to prevent disease because this can save as minimum money and time and as maximum life because prevent is always more cheaper than take care about already ill human. As I know a lot of countries do this already and their have very good results.
Unknown said…
Well, this idea is quite good, but I don't think, it is possible to change in a matter of 5 or 10, event not in the 20 years, because of the thinking stagnation of politicians and strong lobby of the health care companies.

Well, I got different situation for going to doctor. My both parents are doctors, so I visit them often and if there is anything - I know it early enough to go to other specialist than my parents.

And it depends if healthy lifestyle means not drinking any alcohol, not eating any fast-foods, making sports everyday, sleeping long enough and eating only "fit" meals... If yes, then I'm only partly leading healthy lifestyle...
Jakub Lisicki said…
I am one of the people who visit doctors preventively. I'm not a maniac that wastes their time for any minor issue, but once I see that something worse may develop out of the current symptoms, I simply want to make sure it won't. It's not the system's fault that many people don't do this as well as it isn't the system's fault that so many people out there don't believe that some medicines or vaccines work. We have to become more responsible ourselves. The thing that in my opinion should be changed is enforcing people to vaccinate their kids. It shouldn't remain as-is. Currently, even in Poland there is not much to do in case of non-vaccinated children. They can't be forced to do anything nor banned out of the public institutions like elementary schools. The risk should never be collective.
I don't think that I live a particularly healthy lifestyle, I am fully aware of that. I'm just trying not to ignore every advice for healthy living and I try to live at least partially healthy lifestyle.
Iman Masjedi said…
The video was very interesting, it examined the problem of system therapy from another perspective.
The truth is that in health and insurance systems, all their financial benefits are superior to health. Treatment is the second stage after the financial discussion. For example, in some cases pharmaceutical companies, in many cases, conclude special contracts with doctors who only prescribe their products to their patients.
Unknown said…
The idea might be bad simply because there are a lot of people who really do everything to avoid doctors and dont listen to them. How can doctor keep you healthy if you are your only enemy in this case? I usually visit doctors when I'm already ill(except dentist) since i don't have any real reason to go there when everything is ok. And yeah, I provide healthy lifestyle, try to eat healthy food and go outside.
Unknown said…
I think that more frequent preventive visits would be still cheaper than curing serious illnesses. Of course such drastic moves should be prepared months or even years before actual change.
I suggest you try lead a healthier lifestyle, I bet you will thank me later ;)
Unknown said…
Exactly, I hope in near future such ideas will come to Poland.
Unknown said…
I agree that strong lobby of the health care companies might be the biggest problem to overcome. Lucky you, you don't need to wait months in queues to visit to the doctor ;)
Mullenbeck's idea is partially achieved by insurace based healthcare. You know, you pay some money all the time, but if you have some real problems you will not have to pay super huge money. I visit dentist every hald a year, otherwise i haven't visited doctors for more than 5 years and i would visit one only if i was in a pretty bad shape. I want to believe i live a healthy lifestyle, but i surely can have a few improvements in my health habits.
Unknown said…
Unfortunately this is sadly truth. I've read somewhere that health-care companies are very slow when it comes to new cancer medicine research, because they earn tons of money right now. Is it really true? I hope not.
Unknown said…
Great idea. But I think that it is difficult to implement. Monitoring every man requires huge costs, I think that it isn't possible to realize it at in this moment.

I don't like to visit doctors. If I have to visit, of course I am going. I also often try to cure my disease without the help of a doctor.

I try to lead a healthy lifestyle. Sometimes, of course, it fails. But now I avoid unhealthy food and do sports.
Unknown said…
What do you think about mullenbeck’s idea?
Sounds great, but devil in details and that might be total disaster during transition period. Also you have to shift human bechavior and there I see the biggest problem... People don't like to change.
Do you visit to the doctor preventively or do you visit him/her when you are already ill?
I would like to see eyes of doctor when I would say that Im here to prevent something and im not ill...
Do you lead a healthy lifestyle?
I can't say that but I try thou. Im started to visit swimming pool three times a week. Also planing to add running and small training with weights. What is questinable for me is food since don't have a lot of time while combining studies and full time work so usually eat outside and not the most healthy food.
Unknown said…
The idea is great! I believe it can be difficult to apply it, due to a number of people and companies which getting a benefit of such system but I fully sure that such approach can be very successful.

I generally not visiting doctors, only in the case when I need to pass the same obligatory examination. Except for dentist, I’m visiting dentist preventively. I have strong belief that even if I’m not the sick, the doctor would like to treat me.

I couldn’t say that I leaving healthy lifestyle. At least I’m trying to make sports few times a week and also eat healthy food.
Unknown said…
I have to say that it is difficult for me to say whether this idea would pass the exam, so I cannot give an unambiguous answer.
At the doctor's, I was recently in high school, since I have been living alone and taking care of myself, I have never been sick enough to go to the doctor. In the case of minor diseases, I already know which medicaments to buy, which work on me and that is why I prefer to save those few hours in line, so that the doctor can tell me the same as I already know.
I think I have a normal lifestyle, for example, when it's cold I dress warmer.
Unknown said…
1. Thanks for posting interesting talk. Mullenbeck’s idea is in line with famous Hippocrates quote: “Prevention is better than cure” and is of course very reasonable. However, as Mullenbeck mentioned, implementation of this approach would require enormous change in a whole health care system and also in other related areas. It would require not only large amount of money but also lots of changes in law as health care is a highly regulated industry. Of course this does not mean that researches and clinical trials in this area should be stopped as this preventive and personalized health care is very promising about curing most serious diseases like cancer.
2. I see a doctor only when I am forced to do so. I know this is not the right approach and I should do it systematically.
3. I try to stay healthy as much as I can, however there are periods in my life when I just don’t have enough time to prepare healthy meals or visit a gym.
Foodocado said…
I can't say that I lead a healthy lifestyle. I don't care if the food that i eat is healthy or not. The main reason for that is the lack of time. I would like to start eating more healthy, more regularly and move more. I think it's a transitional period and in future I will be able to find time for all that.

I hardly never feel sick and I visit the doctor only if need to. I don't think it's a responsible approach, but it's easier that way.
I do not like doctors. I do not like to waste time on long lines to get to the doctor. I call the doctor only when there is a need, but I don't think this is the right approach. The only exception is, the dentist, I visit him regularly. I think that you can avoid many problems if we learn about them in advance. So I would like to have a person or a system that would make me visit doctors regularly. There are situations when you are forced to do something that you do not like.
Unknown said…
the idea of mullenbeck’s itself is very interesting and in my opinion it is likely that if it was introduced as official healthcare system maybe there would be less people ill than nowadays. However although theoratically seems to be easy in practise it would be difficult to manage.
I visit doctor only if something serious to my health happens. For sure I wouldn't go to doctor when I have fever or headache.
When it comes to my lifestyle I admit it is not very healthy currently however it is not so bad.
I usually visit my doctor when something is wrong. I know that it is bad habbit but i always forget to register in my clinic. The best thing to do is having full examination each year but I guess mostly people doesn't follow this rule. Actually while being a programmer it is realy hard to lead a healthy lisfestyle because of no time. Having a nine-to-five job, sitting behind desk for 8 hours and after that doing stuff to develop your programming skills is not healthy either. IT guys should always have some sportt excercises as a hobby.
Unknown said…
I think that this idea is really nice. In fact I'm not sure if it's possible but maybe our society should try to do something new in this subject. I know that a lot of people tried but maybe we should look at this from another perspective. Maybe this idea will be start of good changes.

In fact, I always go to the doctor when i feel that something is wrong with me. Maybe it isn't disease always, but when i feel symptoms or tiredness without reason then i start thinking about visit the doctor.

If it comes about healthy lifestyle i try to take care about what I eat and keep my body in shape.


Unknown said…
Good idea to make improvements to current health system I would say. The best way to deal with disease is to prevent them.
The only medical examinations I do regularly, are sports survey. I have to do them once a year, before season - basic stuff, blood and urine. Unfortunately this is my only rutine as far as doctors are concerned :D
Furthermore - I only visit them when I'm really ill, usualy I go to the pharmacy for some drugs and monitor my health in home. Fortunately, my parents have medical education, they used to work in hospital, so I'm covered in that area.
In my opinion my lifestyle is preatty health. I eat clean food, do sports and take all nutrition I need - so in that case, I'm only ill maybe once a year.
To sum up - I always try to prevent myself from illness, at least I'm doing my best.

Unknown said…
What do you think about mullenbeck’s idea?
I think his idea is a way we should think, but it will take years to introduce it. Mainly because the healthcare system is the most important system in every country i would say and chaning it is very difficult and challenging.
Do you visit to the doctor preventively or do you visit him/her when you are already ill?
Im trying to visit doctors preventively, but in daily basis I'm jsut forgetting about it. The only one I visit regularly with success is my dentist. Maybe because I have to pay him everytime and he reminds me always about a visit?
Do you lead a healthy lifestyle?
It's hard question, because it depends of the time i have. Im trying to be an active person - go to the gym or go on bike. Of course I also try to avoid unhealthy food.
Kristina Moroz said…
I always thought that consciousness about your health is a sign of responsible person. It means that if you have symptoms or feeling unwell you should at least call your doctor and ask. However, some people don't have good enough financial stability so they can't afford proper health insurance.
I do lead a health lifestyle but is this enough?
I think health-care system need to provide clinics with free consultations for everyone.
For those who want to know if they ok or not.
Marcin Górski said…
Mullenbeck’s idea sounds great and it can works but it can be hard to introduce. Collecting data can prevent a lot of illnesses - that is the most advantage of that solution.
I don't like to visit doctors and hospitals so I prefer go there when I'm already ill.
I like healthy lifestyle and I'm trying to be fit. It's something like hobby for me, it can also help me so profit on both sides :)
Unknown said…
I have to say that I visit to the doctor when I am already ill and I should change it in my life. It is more safe for us to do some tests from time to time.

I don't thik that I lead a healthy lifestyle. I eat only 3 meals per day and I sleep less than I should. It is another think which I want to change in my life in the near future.
Unknown said…
1. What do you think about mullenbeck’s idea?
Well that was very interesting, I had no idea about such concept. The costs are so huge, but isn't our life the most important thing in the world? It would take multiple years to change the whole medical infrastructure, but I think it is worth it.

2. Do you visit to the doctor preventively or do you visit him/her when you are already ill?
Unfortunately, I do visit my doctor when I am already ill and I have to change this behavior as sometimes it is just too late to be treated after some disease already occurs.

3. Do you lead a healthy lifestyle?
I am doing my best to make my life the healthiest it can be, but as a developer it is very hard to maintain healthy lifestyle.
Cecylia said…

I think that Mullenbeck said the right thing and its logical because we want to stay healthy all the time so we need to take care of our health a not become sick and feel bad then cure ourself. I really never thought about it this way and i think that since we are little they told us that the doctor is a person who will cure. But when I think the other way we forget that "the powers" makes everyone sick and eject some strange diseases to kill people because the population is too big . All these viruses or bacterias are produced somewhere and not alone but by the hand of humans in laboratories. we don't know what is happening in secret but a believe that sientists are experimenting alot and calculating the advantages of spreading various diseases to reduce the population . Then there is farmaceutical business . they want people to be sick in the mind of bying medicine. I visit the doctor when i'm already ill but sometimes i check if everything is alright. I do not lead a healthy lifestyle and i don't know why, maybe because of time and money ...

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