New Technology

“Hello ladies and gentlemen, thank you for visiting our booth today! We look forward to showing you what’s new at EmpatheTek! Our company found a way to blend the technological with your physiological processes in a way that brings the provider in-depth information being less invasive to the patient.” It was the 2022 Medical Professionals Health Conference, a new company garnered attention with their latest invention.

One attendee whispered to his companion "it looks like an everyday ECG machine, do we really need a new one?"

“Our machine uses electrodes placed in specific areas such as along the nerve plexuses, and around the occipital lobe of the skull. It then reads the action potentials from nerves and muscles, respectively, by following the signals being sent throughout the body. These signals can be interpreted if they are being directed to the blood or brain. It measures the levels of various hormone signals. This is empathy transformed into action.

The receiver, will feel what the patient or sender feels within minutes. We have a pamphlet here with estimations on how this may help reduce the opioid epidemic numbers leaving more room for those in need and a clearer path to recovery for addicts.

Today’s first set volunteers; George and Lindsay will demonstrate first!”

George and Lindsay each sat in a plush white chair, resembling the ones found in dental offices. The chairs were separated by desk holding up a small silver box that almost resembled an ECG reader. As the spokesman hooked up the diodes to Lindsay he explained to the audience, "She suffers from migraines and reports she can feel an onset of one." Once Lindsay’s set up was complete, the spokesman moved to George, “George here, says he feels fine today, he has never suffered a migraine, but knows of people who have. He says he’d like to see why people miss work or stay home over a headache. Let's see if this experience changes that! On George we will place this crown, or receptor ring. As the machine reads out what Lindsay is experiences, it will transmit these same neural, muscular and hormone signals being read from Lindsay’s entire body to be processed by George’s brain.

The demonstration booth gained more onlookers.

The machine took a few minutes to warm up while reading Lindsay: as she sat on the soft, high backed, white chair, it looked like she was melting happily. At the minute and a half mark George felt a small tinge of pain similar to slowly stabbing him with a sharp needle, “Ahem” he cleared his throat to mask the discomfort. “I can feel something, it’s certainly nothing to write home about…or miss work over,” he said flippantly just before his eyes began to rapidly flutter. “The light in the room is brighter, it’s bothering my eyes. Did someone turn the lights up, does this machine mess with the senses?” "No," answered the spokesman, "you are experience the world as she does, part of her experience with migraines is increased sensitivity to light." As George began rattling off a list of unpleasant sensations the audience of medical professionals gained interest, not at George’s blathering, but at Lindsay! The down turned corners of her mouth and serious expression became a slight smile, her furled brow relaxed, anterior neck muscles un-clenched and this 50 something year old woman became aesthetically appealing, and visibly youthful.

The spokesman was flooded with questions about how the machine works, what was Lindsay’s medical history, what were the side effects, was this permanent, what the clinical data stated? The Spokesman was a bit amazed himself, as he admitted he hadn’t read her entire form, he only knew that Lindsay mentioned her main focus was the onset of a migraine this morning. He turned and asked permission to read her intake form, she nodded in approval. “She has listed: sciatic pain, frozen shoulder, tension headaches, and occasional migraines folks. That’s is quite a bit of pain Lindsay, you only mentioned being a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10! We’d better disconnect you two.” One of the audience members stated, “It does not seem like a safe option for those who have adapted to high pain levels. If the person receiving the signals isn’t used to it, can't it cause a higher reading.” As the audience member spoke, she tilted her head towards George, who was whimpering like a hurt puppy, while covering eyes, in a spastic motion as his shoulders and neck pulled forward.

Without breaking a sweat the Spokesman, hid that he was caught off guard, turned the machine off while letting the participants know, it took 30 seconds for the signals to stop and each participant gradually regained their previous posture. "As for your question Ma'am, no, the machine is mimicking the exact signals the other patient or sender experiences and sends that reading without respect to anyone's pain threshold. We have found that this is a good thing for those who may be suffering without the ability to communicate what they are going through." The spokesman continued with his pitch while unhooking the two, “Our goal with EmpatheTek is go get this technology into our OB/GYN departments here in the states. We can simulate birth pains, but physiologically face a new mother's complaints could decrease the mortality rate during child birth. You witnessed in real time how this device removes the guessing game of what patient is going through. Now, who would like to buy and who else would like try?”

EmpatheTec explicitly informed their spokespersons before each show, not to mention racial bias. The company learned quickly during funding requests that although people claimed to want equality for all, they backed away from the possibility of achieving it once racial disparities were mentioned. They would rather entice closeted racists by allowing them to try to disprove pain in certain patients. This would allow for clear, hopefully non-manipulated data.

News of this machine spread quickly, and here is the story of Dr. Jameson a doctor with something to prove to a patient he deemed unworthy of his skills.