Samaira Bangatufts university, Tufts University · startups and sidequests

Medical Industry Never Tells us THIS

23 Jan 2024 · 1 min

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In this monologue, the speaker recounts an internship at an uncle’s X‑ray film business, where they observed a steady increase in demand for diagnostic and treatment services such as radiology clinics, dialysis centers, and cardiac stents. While the industry typically celebrates this growth as a positive sign, the speaker questions whether the need for more medical interventions truly benefits society. This reflection leads to a conceptual shift: moving away from "sick care"—the focus on treating illness after it occurs—to a broader vision of "healthcare" that emphasizes overall health and prevention rather than merely expanding treatment capacity.

Chapters

I was interning with one of my uncle's business, which was selling X-ray films. I realized the sales of X-ray films or the need for diagnostic clinics, radiology clinics was only increasing. You know, in business you look at growth in an industry and this industry was booming. There's something called dialysis. The need for those centers were increasing. Heart problems and wanting stents, the need for that was increasing. Everywhere where I did research in the health space, the demand was increasing for everything and it was always portrayed as a positive sign. And the question that I asked myself at that time, how is it a good thing that we're going to need more centers or more stents or more dialysis? Is it a sign of growth? Is it really a sign of something that's good for us as a species, as a community? And I— it didn't make sense. So that's the day I realized that I was not interested in sick care. I was interested in healthcare.