godzillabacter

FYI the knees are labeled backwards

Am actual doctor. I think we're both closer to and further away from a Tricorder than you think.

Point of care ultrasound has been booming for the last 1-2 decades. There are now cell-phone sized wireless probes you can easily put in your pocket and do multiple diagnostic scans on the heart, lung, belly, etc with the caveat that you have to be adept at both obtaining and interpreting ultrasound images which certainly takes a lot of process.

There are devices about as big as 2-3 cell phones (think label maker or portable speaker sized) which can reliably run a whole panel of common blood tests including electrolytes, a blood gas, and hemoglobin on a 1-2mL blood sample in <5min. We also have dedicated point of care A1C devices, PT/INR devices, and probably some more I don't know about.

I don't think we'll ever have handheld xray/CT solely due to the significant radiation risk the operator would experience, even if the technology could be miniaturized.

I don't think handheld MRI will ever happen either. The power requirement alone for the magnet strength needed is immense, not to mention the dangers of the magnetic field in some random unsecured area and the length of normal scans makes a handheld device impractical.

I don't think we'll ever have "bloodless" comprehensive blood testing. There's only so much you can do with spectroscopy, and some things like electrolytes are in dramatically different concentrations between the cells and the blood so scanning through skin would likely dramatically alter readings.

TLDR we are actively miniaturizing some medical technologies. There are physics limitations in "handheld-izing " most non-ultrasound diagnostic imaging, and while we've certainly made great progress in point of care labs, I don't think we're going to get a device that can measure those things without a blood sample.

"Never argue with stupid people because they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience." George Carlin

Mifepristone has no role in the treatment or prevention of ulcers, only misoprostol is used in that fashion.

Just an aside, this question reminded me of an interview I watched with a former CIA agent speaking about how when he worked overseas he varied his routine randomly every day. Woke up, left the house at different times, drove different routes to work, etc to avoid being targeted. He had a colleague from a different nation who regularly accused him of being paranoid. Then his colleague got assassinated.

Nutmeg is poisonous in high doses and can lead to hallucinations, seizures, and other complications.

I can see from your comment you want to better understand queer people and feel that supporting them as equals is the right thing to do. Your lack of insight into the historical and ongoing persecution your in-group has had toward this minority is a issue and will limit your ability to support queer people at this time.

Christianity as a whole has spent literally centuries persecuting sexual minorities and reinforcing the belief that people who are not cisgendered and heteronormative are living inherently sinful lives and are morally bankrupt people who should be ostracized from society or worse. People have been imprisoned, castrated, and murdered by state and state-like actors because of Christianity's beliefs. People have spent their lives hiding who they love because they would literally be beaten by their neighbors, had their careers ruined, or run out of town if it came to light they were homosexual.

Has this gotten better in recent years? Mostly

Does this mean people who are Christian inherently hold this belief or are themselves bad people? No.

But your lack of introspection and/or knowledge of the historical context for which queer people have distrust of Christians as a whole is evidence that you don't really understand the problem.

Your comment that you feel like you're being looked down upon by people is also interesting. Many people now look back upon the centuries by which Christians sought to impose their belief system on others often through state-imposed violence, and how some groups continue to do so, as barbaric and directly confrontational to modern concepts of freedom and liberty. But Christianity is still the most populous religion in the world, and conservative Christian ideals are seeing large political victories in many western counties over the last 1-2 decades, often directly at the expense of the rights of women and minorities. This argues that you really aren't the persecuted minority that is sometimes brought up in modern propaganda such as the laughable concept of the "War on Christmas".

If you want to support queer people, I think that's great. If your idea of support is "I don't care what they do as long as it's not forced on me" you should recognize the historical irony in this statement as Christianity has spent literal millennia forcing its ideals on others and continues to attempt to do so. I would encourage you to reflect on your beliefs, if you truly accept queer people as legitimate equals, and obtain some historical perspective on this issue.

US Physician here. The efforts I place into keeping a patient with capacity in the hospital vary directly to the concern I have about their pathology. There is a very real subset of people who have capacity, i.e. have the mental faculties about them that I cannot legally or ethically place them under a medical hold for treatment, who clearly do not comprehend the gravity of their situation or the likelihood they will die if they leave. I have unfortunately seen a number of patients who require significant amounts of supplemental oxygen, IV medications to support their blood pressure, life-threatening infections requiring IV antibiotics, etc, who for whatever reason decide they don't want to be in the hospital anymore. Discontinuation of this life support puts their life at near-immediate risk, but the folks that are usually trying to leave in these situations are angry, distrusting of the medical system, and very goal-oriented on what they want to leave the hospital for (food because they're NPO, illicit substance use, smoking, care for their dog, etc) to the point that they're capable of saying "yeah yeah I can die whatever fucker, unhook me and let me leave." These patients deserve for me to sit down with them and try and have a conversation about what we can do to keep them in the hospital because I'm worried they physically won't make it through the hospital doors before they lose consciousness.

There are also people who have capacity, want to leave for whatever reason, and aren't literally gonna die in 5 minutes. They get papers and a pat on the back as they walk out the door.

All of this hinges on a patient's decision making capacity, and the reason every single time you want to leave the hospital against medical advice (AMA) you have to talk to one of the treating doctors is they have to determine if you have capacity at the time you're making that decision. To be allowed to leave the hospital AMA you have to be able to demonstrate that you can understand why you're in the hospital, the risks of leaving the hospital AMA, and hold consistent and logical (not necessarily rational) positions on decisions/priorities. If you can't do any one of those things, you by definition don't have medical decision making capacity, and I am not only legally allowed to, but I'm ethically obligated to keep you in the hospital to be treated until either a surrogate decision maker with capacity can be identified OR you have return of your capacity after your illness improves and we have this conversation again.

The Sly Cooper Trilogy +/- Thieves in Time

This is incorrect. You just can't switch manufacturers easily if you're stable on one. But that's not a brand vs generic thing, that's an any manufacturer to any-other manufacturer thing. Same with warfarin, narrow-therapeutic index antiepileptics, etc.

No idea unfortunately, but definitely not to release pressure. You don't get air in your brain, it's all fluid. Outside of the hospital, all the drains drain to somewhere internal, usually the abdominal cavity

Am doctor. Outside of very rare and specific causes of headache, no this wouldn't fix anything, just put you at risk for infections.