Hits & Misses – 2009/2/25
Could robots become “terminator”-type menaces?
Autonomous military robots that will fight future wars must be programmed to live by a strict warrior code, or the world risks untold atrocities at their steely hands. This stark warning… is part of a hefty report funded by and prepared for the U.S. Navy’s high-tech and secretive Office of Naval Research. “There is a common misconception that robots will do only what we have programmed them to do,” Patrick Lin, the chief compiler of the report, said. “Unfortunately, such a belief is sorely outdated, harking back to a time when programs could be written and understood by a single person.”
Ontario sets limits on waiting times.
The plan… sets a cap of eight hours for patients with complex conditions and four hours for those with minor problems… [Currently,] all Toronto hospitals… exceed the provincial target, with one branch of the Humber River Regional Hospital clocking in at 22.8 hours for serious cases.
Health care is no problem once you cross the border.
Companion Global Healthcare [is adding] hospitals in Hermosillo and Monterrey, Mexico, into its network of accredited, international hospitals that treat American patients at affordable prices… Network hospitals [cost] up to 90 percent less than those at U.S. hospitals… and include hospitals in India, Costa Rica, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, Ireland, Taiwan and Mexico. All are accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI).
The British Naional Health Service also has waiting times limits (goals?). In order to make sure they don’t exceed their emergency room time limits, ambulances sit outside the emergency room in car ports with their patients. Apparently, waiting in an ambulance doen’t count as ER waiting.
Great robot photo.
Amazing how many health care problems seem to vanish once you get outide the country.