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Jewish World Review
August 6, 2013/ 30 Menachem-Av, 5773
Can't afford a doctor or medicine? There's always the Placebo App
By
Dave Ross
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
A placebo is something that makes you feel better because you think it will: like a sugar pill shaped like an aspirin that cures your headache simply because you believe in it.
Although lately research has shown the effect can work even when people are told they're taking a placebo.
That got a Seattle entrepreneur named Daniel Jacobs thinking. Suppose you could put a placebo app on a smart phone. And so that's what he's developing. The app is called Placebo Effect, and you'd begin by telling it that, for example, you have a migraine.
"And the next thing that you would see, is you would see a screen that allows you to choose how you feel right now, effectively how your migraine feels," said Jacobs.
"The next thing we would ask is, 'Who is the best person to help you effectively relieve that migraine?'"
So you choose a favorite person, you choose a favorite place, and then you choose your type of placebo --- and you're not limited to a pill.
"There are placebo syringes and there's even placebo surgery, where people effectively are given fake surgery, you know a split is put into their head," said Jacobs.
And then, like a mad lib, the Placebo Effect App combines your favorite person, your favorite place, and your preferred placebo, and assembles a visual or written narration on your phone describing your customized treatment --- and that's what makes you feel better.
"It's not to create miracles, you know we're not G0D, but it is to create a sandbox in which in a sense miracles can happen," said Jacobs.
Jacobs is crowd sourcing the start-up money for his smart phone app right now. Although never mind the smart phone, I could placebo-treat you over the radio: Imagine two powerful aspirin. Imagine swallowing them.
Now imagine calling me in the morning. Oh the pharmacetical companies are not gonna be happy.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here. Dave Ross hosts the Morning News on Seattle's KIRO Radio weekdays from 5-9 a.m. He spends his down time tinkering with electronic projects, writing novelty songs, shopping at thrift stores, and playing squash. As an avid hiker, he's earned the title Energizer Bunny from his friends; while they all stop to see stuff along the trail, Dave keeps going and going and going. He enjoys traveling internationally for work and pleasure with memorable stops in Baghdad, Qatar, Israel, Prague, Germany (to cover the Berlin Wall), China, Soviet Union, Niger, Senegal, and Iran.
You can listen to his daily column in audio format by clicking here.
Previously:
• 08/05/13 Car prowlers taught lesson with call to mom
© 2013, Dave Ross
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