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My Mom and Dr. DeepSeek (2025)

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Re: My Mom and Dr. DeepSeek (2025)

#41

Post by repiret »

I'm reminded of the monologue from Terminator 2:

> Watching John with the machine, it was suddenly so clear. The Terminator would never stop, it would never leave him... it would always be there. And it would never hurt him, never shout at him or get drunk and hit him, or say it couldn't spend time with him because it was too busy. And it would die to protect him. Of all the would-be fathers who came and went over the years, this thing, this machine, was the only one who measured up. In an insane world, it was the sanest choice.

The AI doctor will always have enough time for you, and always be at the top of their game with you. It becomes useful when it works better than an overworked midlevel, not when it competes with the best doctor on their best day. If we're not there already, we're darn close.

Re: My Mom and Dr. DeepSeek (2025)

#42

Post by yunohn »

3rodents wrote: post #34
reenorap wrote: post #18

I and many of my friends have used ChatGPT extremely effectively to diagnose medical issues. In fact, I would say that ChatGPT is better than most doctors because most doctors don't actually listen to you. ChatGPT took the time to ask me questions and based on my answers, narrowed down a particularly scary diagnosis and gave excellent instructions on how to get to a local hospital in a foreign country, what to ask fo…

I agree that absolute deference to doctors is a mistake and that individuals should be encouraged to advocate for themselves (and doctors should be receptive to it) but I'm not so convinced in this specific case. Why do high blood sugar levels matter? Are there side effects associated with the alternative treatment? Has ChatGPT actually helped you in a meaningful way, or has the doctor's eventual relenting made you f…

> Why do high blood sugar levels matter?

Are you asking why a side effect that is actually an entire health problem on its own, is a problem? Especially when there is a replacement that doesn’t cause it?

Re: My Mom and Dr. DeepSeek (2025)

#43

Post by abhisuri97 »

guywithahat wrote: post #11

> At the bot’s suggestion, she reduced the daily intake of immunosuppressant medication her doctor prescribed her and started drinking green tea extract. She was enthusiastic about the chatbot I don't know enough about medicine to say whether or not this is correct, but it sounds suspect. I wouldn't be surprised if chatbots, in an effort to make people happy, start recommending more and more nonsense natural remedies…

med student here: Reducing immunosuppressant not something to be taken lightly for kidney transplant patients. I was shocked when I read that sentence.

Re: My Mom and Dr. DeepSeek (2025)

#44

Post by alexpotato »

One of my kids recently had a no-contact knee injury while playing basketball. He immediately started limping and crying and I had to carry him from the court to the car.

I did some searching with Grok and I found out:

- no contact injuries are troubling b/c it generally means they pulled something

- kids don't generally tear an ACL (or other ligament)

- it's actually way more common for the ligament to pull the anchor point off of the bigger bone b/c kid bones are soft

I asked it to differentially diagnose the issue with the details of: can't hold weight, little to no swelling and some pain.

It was adamant, ADAMANT, that this was a classic case of bone being pulled off by the ligament and that it would require surgery. It even pointed out the no swelling could be due to a very small tear etc. It gave me a 90% chance of surgery too.

I followed up by asking what test would definitely prove it one way or the other and it mentioned getting an X-Ray.

We go off to the urgent care, son is already kind of hobbling around. Doctor says he seems fine, I push for an X-Ray and turns out no issue: he probably just pulled something. He was fully healed in 2-3 days.

As someone who has done a lot of differential diagnosing/troubleshooting of big systems (FinTech SRE) I find it interesting that it was basically correct in what could have happened but couldn't go the "final mile" to establish it correctly. Once we start hooking up X-Rays to Claude/Grok 4.2 etc equivalent LLMs, will be even more interesting to see where this goes.

Re: My Mom and Dr. DeepSeek (2025)

#45

Post by alexpotato »

heisenbit wrote: post #27

For major medical issues it may well be best practice to use the four eyes principle like we do for all safety related systems. Access is key and at this time getting a second pair of eyes in close timely proximity is a luxury few have and even fewer will have looking at the demographics in the developed world. Human doctors are failable as is AI. For the time being having a multitude of perspectives may well be the…

The big bank phrase for "four eyes" was "maker/checker" and I always enjoyed that it rhymed.

You are 100% correct that, much like pilots overseeing autopilots, we should combine the best of both worlds in the medical field.

Re: My Mom and Dr. DeepSeek (2025)

#46

Post by Marsymars »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #36
reenorap wrote: post #18

I and many of my friends have used ChatGPT extremely effectively to diagnose medical issues. In fact, I would say that ChatGPT is better than most doctors because most doctors don't actually listen to you. ChatGPT took the time to ask me questions and based on my answers, narrowed down a particularly scary diagnosis and gave excellent instructions on how to get to a local hospital in a foreign country, what to ask fo…

I don't know if I could trust AI for big things, but I had nagging wrist pain for like a year, any time I extended my wrist (like while doing a pushup). It wasn't excruciating but it certainly wasn't pleasant, and it stopped me from doing certain activities (like pushups) I visited my GP, 2 wrist specialists, and physical therapist to help deal with it. I had multiple x rays and an MRI done. Steroid injection done. A…

I guess it’s not nothing that Gemini caught that, but that seems like a pretty obvious oversight from the healthcare practitioners - inquiring about RSI injuries should be one of the first things they ask about.

I pre-emptively switched to trackballs and to alternating left/right hands for mousing near the start of my professional career based on the reading I did after some mild wrist strain.

Re: My Mom and Dr. DeepSeek (2025)

#47

Post by [deleted] »

raincole wrote: post #40
avree wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, no, no. You can change your doctor, and get one that listens to you - you can't change the fact that ChatGPT has no skin in the game - no reputation, no hippocratic oath, no fiscal/legal responsibility. Some people have had miracles with Facebook groups, or WebMD, but that doesn't change where the role of a doctor is or mean that you should be using those things for medical advice as opposed to something that all…

Doctors have no skin in the game too. Our society is built on the illusion of 'skin in the game' of professionals like doctors and lawyers (and to a lesser extent, engineers), but it's still an illusion.

[deleted]

Re: My Mom and Dr. DeepSeek (2025)

#48

Post by cassepipe »

blacksmith_tb wrote: post #6

The dangers are obvious (and also there are some fascinating insights into how healthcare works practically in China). I wonder if some kind of "second opinion" antagonistic approach might reduce the risks.

Can you expand on the insights into the chinese medical system ?

Re: My Mom and Dr. DeepSeek (2025)

#49

Post by 3rodents »

yunohn wrote: post #42
3rodents wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that absolute deference to doctors is a mistake and that individuals should be encouraged to advocate for themselves (and doctors should be receptive to it) but I'm not so convinced in this specific case. Why do high blood sugar levels matter? Are there side effects associated with the alternative treatment? Has ChatGPT actually helped you in a meaningful way, or has the doctor's eventual relenting made you f…

> Why do high blood sugar levels matter? Are you asking why a side effect that is actually an entire health problem on its own, is a problem? Especially when there is a replacement that doesn’t cause it?

Side effects do not exist in isolation. High blood sugar is not a problem if it is solving a much bigger health issue, or is a lesser side effect than something more serious. If medication A causes high blood sugar but medication B has a chance of causing blood clots, medication A is an obvious choice. If a patient gets it in their head that their high blood sugar is a problem to solve, ChatGPT is going to reinforce that, whereas a doctor will have a much better understanding of the tradeoffs for that patient. The doctor version of the x/y problem.

Re: My Mom and Dr. DeepSeek (2025)

#50

Post by scuff3d »

I feel like we're in the part of the dystopian SciFi movie where they explain how civilization discovered some technological advance that they thought would be a panacea to all their woes. And despite not really understanding it or it's limitations, just started slapping it on absolutely everything, and before they know what happened everything comes crashing down.
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