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I got pitched (along with a bunch of other people at an investment conference) on an insanely expensive concierge medicine service and they trotted out some super impressive doctor who was fascinating. Anyway the thing that stuck was that he said it takes 10-20 years for meaningful advances in medicine to show up in general use, which was a little depressing


>he said it takes 10-20 years for meaningful advances in medicine to show up in general use

Could it be that it takes that long to determine whether those advances are actually worthwhile? I can’t count the number of HN posts I’ve seen touting breakthroughs in medical research that ultimately didn’t pan out.


No, this is the time it takes for the proven treatment advances to reach rank-and-file doctors (and insurance policies). I've read the numbers 17 to 22 years I think. There are studies on this, but I don't have references handy.


That’s not true in my experience.

Look at the adoption of CAR-T therapies. It took 3-4 years before they were regularly used in the US.




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