Can a Computer Replace Your Doctor?

I'm guessing you're getting downvotes from people who are sick and fucking tired of reading the same trite comment quoting betteridge.

Atul Gawande's checklist manifesto emphasizes the need for processes while solving complex problems like surgery. A doctor can forget to wash his hand while a machine cannot forget. So that is a place where computer assisted techniques make sense just like the case of flying a plane where the autopilot can take care of most things except when things go wrong and humans have to take over. I don't think anyone with adequate experience in healthcare and technology would make wild claims about replacing doctors with machines. There are plenty of places where machines can aid doctors and simplify processes at scales thereby letting doctors focus on more complex things. That's how the automobile industry evolved and so will healthcare. But doctor's will always be needed. They would just be doing different things or existing things in a different way.

There are plenty of people in this part of the world (Eg. India) where people are just getting to the point of trusting a ATM machine with cash withdrawal. Assuming machines become better than doctors at asking patients the right kind of questions, knowing when they are lying or just not able to communicate their problem, there is still a significant barrier and probably a generation of cultural changes that would make it acceptable to have a machine as your primary care giver. Diagnostics have been using complex technology for a while, so there is no doubt about technology improving the decision making process. However diagnosis is just one and probably a small part of the healthcare process. Actually improving the patients health requires following a treatment plan and adherence to lifestyle and medical processes. Most people just fail to comply due to behavioral reasons. This is where technology and so call 'AI' can play a role. By understanding individual human behavior patterns and guiding people to do small changes that would improve their health outcomes. We have been working on fixing this problem for people with chronic conditions like diabetes at http://www.janacare.com.

Of all mainstream professions (including software developers) medical doctors have the highest average IQ. They understood very well how dangerous for their mortgages and standard of living a computer doctor can be. The MD lobby in US have fought tooth and nail since the 1980s to stall advance in this area.

and some patients miss appointments, and nobody plans to be ill so there are last-minute "squeeze-me-in" appointments, etc. etc. Some practices manage this much better than others though.

I think that people often miss why people go to doctors in the first place and why they trust them. In society a doctor was historically always a very well respected individual. I think it's worth reflecting on that. Why were they respected? Did it help the patient that they were respected?

Considering the impact of placebo medicines, I can't help but wonder if there's an element of psychology that needs to be noticed and addressed here (and whether it is actually key that a doctor is respected (for the right reasons, obviously. Specifically: that they will be able to address the problem addressed to them)). My hypothesis is that a good doctor is someone who asks the right questions but also looks for questions that need to be asked for that individual's needs. Example: the patient has the symptom of a broken arm, but why is that. Is there something more here? Is there some form of domestic violence involved? Or... do they have a weakness in the opposite arm, and when cycling they are more likely to fall off.

One of my doctor friends said to me that they'd recently shown that the better the Doctor communicates with a patient, the lower the chance of lawsuits. I like to call it 'managing expectations', from the whole project managementy world although someone will shoot me for saying that!

It may well be the case that on paper checklists work best, but I assert that there's a lot more personality and social interaction to a doctor than anyone initially realises. The challenge in this space is marrying the two concepts.