Note To Cheaters: Next Time Hire the Brains 349
An anonymous reader writes "A man and his accomplice are accused of cheating on a Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) by using a wireless pinhole camera and cellphone to send realtime images of the exam questions to a team of people supplying the 'correct' answers. One problem: the 'answer team' was tricked into the job by being told they were taking a test to qualify them as MCAT tutors. There were several clues the 'tutor exam' was bogus, including the poor quality of the images of the questions. Suspicious, the 'answer team' discovered the real MCAT test was occurring at the same time. They started feeding wrong answers to the accused cheaters and called campus security. The two accused cheaters now face several charges as a result."
Re:The charges are bullshit. (Score:5, Informative)
One, and only one, of the following is true:
1) Absolutely all people everywhere of the same profession are identical in every way, and therefore the general conclusions about doctors you've drawn from your specific experience with one hospital are valid.
2) You're a moron.
Re:Wrong Line of Work (Score:5, Informative)
Indeed, the CIA actually wants people that know what they're doing. They'll train agents on any cheating and trickery that's necessary to do their job, but most agents don't need that type of thing for their jobs. The CIA employs a surprising number of people in support roles doing things like analysis.
Re:Criminal Charges? (Score:5, Informative)
Next time a "doctor" is about to put you under and saw through your sternum to operate on your heart, ask yourself the same question.
I hope if I get to that point (heart problems run in my family) I've another citizenship besides USA in a country that doesn't try to shoehorn capitalism into medicine.
After working at an answering service for 5 years, I've learned that doctors in the USA at least are duplicitous, technically inept (as in can't understand their pager doesn't work when turned off), and willing to lie left and right just to get a small discount on their bill.
I've stopped going to my doctor altogether because the board of directors at the affiliated hospital let us know that it might not be safe to be a patient of one of their doctors any more over a billing dispute.
I have less respect for doctors than I do lawyers, because at least the lawyer clients have some basis for an argument when they dispute their bill. All doctors know are cuss words, and I intend to drop my health insurance next open enrollment period because I'm sick of subsidizing these pigs.
Boy, if you think doctors are inept now, wait until the bureaucracy takes over. Nothing spells incompetence like a bureaucrat. If you think medicine is a bad example, look at cars. Compare cars made by governments (Communist countries) to cars made by private citizens (capitalist countries) and tell me which one is more reliable, more efficient and safer? Now, ask yourself if you want your doctor to run like a Toyota or a Moskvitch.
There is a big difference between cars and medical care: You can figure out which car is a better buy. You can't figure out which doctor is a better doctor before you agree to pay them. Google "kenneth arrow healthcare" to see the seminal paper on this topic.
Every industrialized country other than the US has a solution to this: Experts who understand medicin evaluate medical procedures and outcomes per-doctor, and administer the medical system to do what individuals would do if they had better information. This leads to better outcomes at a lower cost. If you believe that the government can't do this, then please explain how 35 of them have outdone the US market-based system year after year for several decades.