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ccheneytoday at 2:32 AM4 repliesview on HN

Are you implying soundwaves are dangerous?


Replies

noobermintoday at 2:35 AM

You shouldn't promote something like this as being useful for medical purposes, because some patients might think this is real and start sending their doctors these "scans" or even worse, some shitty doctors will use them to diagnose tumours in their patients so they can then make banger bucks out of their new hallucinated cancer patients.

Stuff like this needs to go through approvals for obvious reasons before they can advertise them for having medical purposes.

atq2119today at 5:39 AM

That was probably not GP's point, but they can be. Sound-based weapons are a thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-range_acoustic_device

Of course a lot of it is about the energy and overall exposure, and the harms of this, if any, are more likely elsewhere, but it's completely reasonable to question extraordinary promises made by people who up to this point have shown no expertise in the field.

I swear, it's like some people have already forgotten about Theranos.

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dwrobertstoday at 9:40 AM

Focused ultrasound is already used as an actual surgery method and they have to carefully balance the parameters so it does not produce heating and damage [unrelated] tissue. Obviously a scanner would not aim for the same power/effects but it is possible to cause harm, yes

cootsnucktoday at 6:11 AM

"Dangerous" is a loaded term. But yes, even "soundwaves" can cause harm, same way use of pharmacological medical interventions can cause harm. Dosage, application methods, side effects, etc. all exist for medical use of ultrasound too. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8954895