As an anesthesiologist (albeit retired) I've been far from being a luddite all my life (built a ruby pulse laser when I was 10, starting coding in 1968 at age 18 using Fortran IV with the Watfor Compiler). Before I became aboard certified anesthesiologist, I practiced as a GP-surgeon. My office was one of the first computerized offices in the state of Nevada — we're talking 1979. I'll give you one example where AI could be fooled. Decades ago, I had 30-year old male complaining of a sore throat. Period. But he looked very slightly off to me. I'd bet AI would not have picked that up because the database of images would not have been sufficiently trained to discern his look. In any event, I got some blood work, which would not have been protocol for a complaint of a sore throat. It ended up he had the 5th case of some bizarre collagen disease, diagnosed at Stanford University where I sent him for consultation. When he finally came back from Stanford, I managed his meds in consultation with the folks there.
I have no doubt that AI will be a useful tool for many aspects of medical practice, even for specialties as anesthesiology. But there will be things AI can't do for a very long time to come. Probably the most important is human-human interaction.
Thanks John. I suspect you are right that AI won't replace everything you do. Which is why I think we need to think about developing systems with checks and balances. Like what I proposed above where if something is unusual it gets a second opinion from a doctor.
Although you could argue that AI might be better at recognising rare conditions because it has access to all the unusual case reports that a normal clinician will never have read or remembered. Like your case above.
As an anesthesiologist (albeit retired) I've been far from being a luddite all my life (built a ruby pulse laser when I was 10, starting coding in 1968 at age 18 using Fortran IV with the Watfor Compiler). Before I became aboard certified anesthesiologist, I practiced as a GP-surgeon. My office was one of the first computerized offices in the state of Nevada — we're talking 1979. I'll give you one example where AI could be fooled. Decades ago, I had 30-year old male complaining of a sore throat. Period. But he looked very slightly off to me. I'd bet AI would not have picked that up because the database of images would not have been sufficiently trained to discern his look. In any event, I got some blood work, which would not have been protocol for a complaint of a sore throat. It ended up he had the 5th case of some bizarre collagen disease, diagnosed at Stanford University where I sent him for consultation. When he finally came back from Stanford, I managed his meds in consultation with the folks there.
I have no doubt that AI will be a useful tool for many aspects of medical practice, even for specialties as anesthesiology. But there will be things AI can't do for a very long time to come. Probably the most important is human-human interaction.
Thanks John. I suspect you are right that AI won't replace everything you do. Which is why I think we need to think about developing systems with checks and balances. Like what I proposed above where if something is unusual it gets a second opinion from a doctor.
Although you could argue that AI might be better at recognising rare conditions because it has access to all the unusual case reports that a normal clinician will never have read or remembered. Like your case above.