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[Asax0]

This is a fantastic idea! If you want your voice to be heard I suggest putting this on the DF Eternal Suggestion Voting (or voting for it, if it's already there!) http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/eternal_voting.php

I'm really OCD about idlers too

[Adrian]

After Urist McBloodbag has been found dead, the body could be shipped off to the hospital, where diagnostician Urist McHouse will attempt to find a cause of death.

A dabbling diagnostician's examination will take ages, an might not even have results. ('The cause of death was unknown.')
More skilled diagnosticians will find the cause of death faster and more accurate. ('missing head' vs. 'two puncture wounds on the throat, through which Urist McBloodbag was drained of blood')

If dwarves salivate this could lead to an interesting cat-and-mouse-game where the fortress guard will take a saliva sample from Urist McFalselyaccused because 'The cause of death was two puncture wounds on the throat, through which Urist McBloodbag was drained of blood. There was saliva on the wounds.'

[PeterisP]

Occasional minor injuries from work tasks would be a fun addition.
Carcing and hauling rock all year long has to result in a strained back every now and then, and not everything should be solvable by dwarven rum to get through the working day.

[EnigmaticHat]

I just want to add to the idler issue, doctors should be able to be on duty even if they have no actual work, just remaining in the hospital and making sure everything is in place in case they are needed (and getting paid once that's in).  That way the one time your hunter comes back with a unicorn horn in stuck in his pancreas, you can make reasonably sure someone will be in the hospital instead of off by the well killing time. 

[tsen]

Allow me to propose two things:

1. Regular checkups. Even if the dwarf isn't injured (or doesn't know he's injured) he should go in occasionally 1/year?) and talk to a doctor. Doctor does a diagnosis job that takes say, 1/2 the normal time but gives 2% the normal XP. (So it helps by keeping the skill from rusting, giving minor but steady XP, and provides a useful function of ensuring your dwarves are getting the care they need)

2. CMD visual exams. When there is a dwarf within sight range who has not had a checkup in say, 6 months, the CMD glances him over and performs a Diagnosis job. Additionally, any dwarf in the hospital zone where the doctor is gets checked every week. Time is extremely low (1 step/frame), gives no xp. If anything is wrong, it detects that but does not actually diagnose; it marks the dwarf as requiring diagnosis as per normal.

The end result would be to (with any luck) end the problem of injured dwarves who get diagnosed but not successfully treated and have to be deliberately re-injured to jump start the medical process.

[Sus]

If dwarves salivate this could lead to an interesting cat-and-mouse-game where the fortress guard will take a saliva sample from Urist McFalselyaccused because 'The cause of death was two puncture wounds on the throat, through which Urist McBloodbag was drained of blood. There was saliva on the wounds.'

Erm, I think going all C.S.I. Dwarf Fortress would be sort of counteractive for the mood of the setting... The DF world is, after all, pretty much modeled on the Medieval period, when medical knowledge, let alone forensic science, was ...somewhat less than sophisticated.

As for medical check-ups and such in general, I really don't see the point.

[tsen]

Largely so that I don't have to systematically engineer "mining/construction accidents" in order to get the medical system to patch people up Sus.

[Ghills]

These ideas all sound pretty awesome.  I'd really like to see better use of the healthcare system - it's pretty comprehensive and realistic for the time period, but there's almost never a reason to use it, and then when we do need it our doctor's are unskilled and useless.

The upcoming hauling improvements seems like the perfect place to add a work-related injuries - sprains, strains, broken bones.  It would be feature creep, though, and I'm not sure I'd like a hauling overhaul delayed to make Urist McDorf pull a muscle more often. 

[NTJedi]

The upcoming hauling improvements seems like the perfect place to add a work-related injuries - sprains, strains, broken bones.  It would be feature creep, though, and I'm not sure I'd like a hauling overhaul delayed to make Urist McDorf pull a muscle more often. 

I don't like the idea of work-related injuries since I don't need my soldiers with sprains and broken bones while marching upstairs to battle!   The better solution was previously suggested of performing training on dead animals/people.  I have plenty of corpses I'd gladly donate to training my idle doctors.

[tsen]

The thing is, work-related injuries wouldn't really keep a soldier from fighting to defend his or her home. Yeah they might drop by the medical area to get something looked at, get a poultice or have a minor injury stitched, but generally speaking it would be done to speed their healing rather than forcibly bed rest them until the bruised fat on their left toe healed fully.

It might also slow the occasionally ludicrous rate of production, which could be a good thing some and also a provider of !FUN!.

[Supersnes]

If doctors are going to perform autopsies and dissections shouldn't they also perform transplant and removal surgeries.  Organs could come from the freshly deceased, kept on ice for a few months, and/or from a volunteer.  The recipient will then have to go through the rehabilitation process, but will still be at risk due to possible incompatibility and infection.  The volunteer, if willing, can get a happy thought...but at the expense of a vital/sub-vital organs and the subsequent debilitating consequences (i.e. decrease breathing if lung, less ability to handle alcohol and diseases if kidneys and/or part of liver, etc). 

[Reudh]

And of course there should be complications from surgeries, and the lifespans cut down as with real life transplants... But then again DF is early medieval fantasy, so medicine was little more than 'Chop it off and see if he lives'...

[Starver]

I don't think doctors performing checkups and practicing on dolls is reasonably realistic for the period- my suggestions would be
[snipped]

If we're going period-appropriate, it'd be "Barber Surgeons", surely?

Normally I wouldn't even suggest such an abomination with dwarves, but that's my Pratchetesque background speaking.  While it appears that including the females Cassanundra alone out of the entire Disc Dwarves population voluntarily shaved, DF Dwarfs are quite fond of altering their facial hair significantly.

May I suggest a 'job-doubling' situation across the medical field?  Maybe something like:

• Barber-Surgeon
• Herbalist-Suturer
• Carpenter[1]-Bone doctor
• Conversationalist?[2]-Diagnostician
• Butcher[3]-Diagnostician
• Clothier-Wound dresser

(Are modders amongst us are already quite capable, and probably willing, of designing a custom "mini-golf" workshop, BTW?  Wouldn't be a social thing, with only one worker allowed[5], but might allow potential surgeons/etc to "give time to think" about medicine.)



[1] And/or bone-crafter?

[2] For conscious patients, representing bedside manner.  (The actual alternate profession might be Mayor/equiv[4] social-skill user, or this is where otherwise unoccupied doctors idling around would be a good thing!)

[3] For unconscious patients.  Also post-mortem? (Not so common, though, in-period, save for the actual anatomists of the day where were as likely to be purely academic or artistic, rather than medical practitioners.)  And if there's a potential for spontaneous syndrome creation/transference, during medical procedures, this should be drastically increased for post-mortems.

[4] And thus promote the disentangling of Bookkeeper and the semi-elected social-skill noble positions, because you need them to be out and about and 'mixing it' not stuck in their office writing the books up, like I habitually have them do.

[5] Although maybe a 'golf course' needs both "Tee" workshops and "Green" workshops, Tees produce "ball" items but do not skill up, Greens absorb "ball" items and do skill up.  Though I'm trying to work out how (even if this is possible) to stop a peasant being told to tee-off continually, allowing a 'golf professional' to sink each produced shot so produced.  Something that makes balls be undroppable haulage items so that once created, the teeing off individual can only go to the green, and can't haul anything else[6]?  I think that's beyond modding, though.  Also, I started off by talking about being 'in period', and this probably aint.

[6] And thus take on any other job requiring material-hauling, including construction of buildings and almost every other workshop reaction.

[Gitaxias]

One thing I think is, especially if this whole "Mad scientist medical experiments" thing gets implemented, is doctor sadism. Just like how any time a dwarf gives food or water they get a positive or negative mood effect based on empathy, I think any doctor who does a surgery, suturing, and possibly bone doctoring should get a mood bonus/penalty based on how low their empathy stat is. "(got/was forced) to perform a painful medical procedure recently". however, it would also come with an unhappy thought for the patient, worse for a sadistic doctor, i.e. "underwent a painful procedure recently.".