The Doctor Who Treats Patients with a Gaming Mouse

Doctor runs appointments with a gamer mouse — and commenters are absolutely losing it

TLDR: Dr. James Ries says a gaming mouse and reusable text templates help him run online doctor visits more consistently across 37 states. Commenters were split between calling it efficient and slamming it as canned, impersonal care, with plenty of jokes and website rage stealing the show.

A doctor using a gaming mouse to treat patients sounds like satire, but it’s real: Dr. James Ries says his telehealth practice uses a many-button mouse plus prebuilt text templates to handle urgent care, mental health, and weight-loss visits across 37 states. The pitch is simple: fewer missed steps, more consistent care, and less time spent typing the same thing over and over. In theory, it’s about keeping quality steady when patients are seen online instead of in person.

But the comments? Total chaos. On the original discussion, the crowd barely waited to debate the idea before dragging the website itself, with one furious reader calling it “AI expanded blog slop” and begging someone to “kill this awful website.” From there, the gloves came off. The harshest critics said the whole thing sounded like a doctor speedrunning human interaction, with one commenter flatly calling it “horrific” and “disgusting.” That became the big fear running through the thread: is this smart efficiency, or medicine turning into a fast-food drive-thru?

Not everyone thought the setup was revolutionary, either. Some commenters shrugged and said doctors have long used canned phrases and shared templates, arguing this was just an old trick with flashy gamer gear slapped on top. Others took the comic route, with one person deadpanning, “I much preferred the Daleks,” instantly turning the headline into a full-blown Doctor Who joke. And in true internet fashion, one practical gearhead skipped the ethics debate entirely to mourn a beloved old gaming mouse and brainstorm even more shortcut buttons. Because of course he did.

Key Points

  • The article profiles Dr. James Ries, founder of Twenty Mile Medical, who says he manages telehealth care across 37 states using a Razer Naga V2 Pro mouse and TextExpander.
  • The article frames telehealth inconsistency as a workflow issue, citing variation in documentation, patient communication, and follow-up instructions among providers.
  • Ries built large branching TextExpander entries called "monster Snippets" that package complete clinical scenarios into one interactive workflow.
  • These snippets use fill-in dialogs with checkboxes, dropdowns, and optional sections to generate full notes and patient-facing materials.
  • The article provides a psychiatric refill example in which the system outputs assessment, medication changes, follow-up plans, handouts, and suicide resources.

Hottest takes

"kill this awful website" — blizdiddy
"a doctor speed running patient interactions" — jackmott42
"I much preferred the Daleks" — xvxvx
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