After breakfast this morning I took my blood pressure and was relieved that the average of three best readings wasn't as worryingly high as it has been lately, even if it is still high by doctor's benchmarks. I thought I should report back to my GP, and attempted to do so as requested, using the Practice website. It's mostly a portal to information streams about health concerns, with an auto-triage system to enquire about a vast range of medical and administrative concerns. But it is far from user friendly. It seems to have been designed by a medical encyclopedia geek, who really has little idea of what the system is like for end users. I couldn't find a way to send a simple report directly.
After half an hour of trying to fit my report into a small message window on one of the pages and pressing send, an automatic message appeared telling me to phone the surgery or 111 urgently. So I rang the surgery and got the automatic queuing system. I didn't have to wait long to reach the head of the queue, but was then disconnected! So, I spent another half an hour writing and printing off a letter and then took it around to the surgery, giving a little feedback about the system.
I find it amazing that the system is built round a complex series of interrogatory menus - heaven help you if you don't describe symptoms or use language in a culturally different frame of reference to that of the program designer. All those wild eyed enthusiasts in government and medical bureaucracy tell us how it's going to be great when A.I. systems make light work of diagnosing the ailments of the masses. It's the ultimate extension to the industrialisation of medicine in the past half century. Advocates are deaf to challenges about A.I. inbuilt discriminatory tendencies leading to sick people not being taken seriously in time of need, because they are atypical.
Real human diagnosticians pick things up which no digital device ever could. The pandemic has forced medics to do much of their work without seeing or examining patients directly. Having a personal relationship with a GP over years is being replaced by being acquainted with a practice medical team which may or may not have enough useful specific knowledge to make an accurate diagnosis. Loads of unread notes in a file system, digital or paper, aren't information giving a whole picture. Someone suffering may tell their story differently to different medics. Sure diagnostic tools are most valuable but not as valuable as personal knowledge of someone, mutual regard and trust.
Having spent a week taking my Olympus OM-D with me on my daily walk, I took the Sony Alpha 68 out with me today for a change. With my long telephoto lens, over twice the weight of the Olympus, it's noticeably more demanding to carry. I took a lot more photos in one day than I've been taking with the Olympus, it's a lot more flexible in the range of photos you can take with it, maybe too because I'm used to it, I take more advantage of it. The Olympus telephoto lens is not nearly as flexible, even though it's very light in comparison. I'm lucky to have interesting kit to play with, to see how I can get the best photos of subjects that please me eye, mostly landscapes, building and trees in different light.
This evening I finally watched the NCIS episode in which Pauley Perret aka forensic genius Abbi Sciuto leaves the series. It was controversial when it was first aired a couple of years ago and I had already read a summary of the story. Interesting to see how it was presented, however, discreetly sidestepping the brrakdown in relationship between Perrette and Mark Harmon the show's lead actor and co-director.
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