Hacker News Reader

I actually read up on the local legalese around this (for Switzerland), and it turns out that doctors can refuse to share information with the patient if they consider it unhelpful/dangerous to do so, but have to share it with other medical staff should they request it.

Especially in the context of psychotherapy or when using placebos, this makes a lot of sense.

View on HN

I found it fascinating, after moving to Finland and having an MRI scan done, that it was possible to order a copy of the results on CD-ROM posted to my house.

Having worked in the medical field in the past exploring a DICOM dataset was no challenge, and the end result is I have a rotating 3D-view of my own brain! (Well just blood vessels, but still ..)

Here in the US, I got an MRI at a 3rd party lab (not a hospital), and they gave me a copy on CD-ROM as I walked out. I didn't even have to ask! I was quite surprised, as I assumed the results would just be shared with my doctor electronically. I have no idea if I would have gotten this same treatment if I had paid 10x as much for the MRI at Stanford Hospital. (I'm guessing not).

You do. We got MRIs on disc at UCLA Santa Monica, free of charge. It's pretty standard.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com