Can a Computer Replace Your Doctor?
nytimes.com
Can a Computer Replace Your Doctor?
1–10 of 48 posts
Re: Can a Computer Replace Your Doctor?
#2As someone who has been in and out of the US medical system, I strongly agree with the opening statement by Dr. Wadhwa.
In my experience there are a lot of incompetent and immoral doctors. As a patient I need a trusted opinion, for I myself have not spent the last ten years in training to become a doctor. So who or what can I turn to? The medical system in this country feels too badly broken. I need another option.
Re: Can a Computer Replace Your Doctor?
#3I would most certainly trust a well programmed computer to replace my doctor.
The examples given in the piece seem more to do with not taking a single measurement as an absolute diagnosis. Which I'd never program a computer to do anyway...
Re: Can a Computer Replace Your Doctor?
#4What I would like to see more in these discussions is the possibility of using computers for triage in medicine...too often, these kinds of "will computers replace us" discussions focus on the computers doing everything...but how about a computer being trained to do as much of the "mechanical" work of a doctor's judgment as possible? Leaving the humans to focus on the 5%
An example I have in mind is Apgar's score, an almost stupidly simple index of a newborn's baby health, but a system devised by an anesthesiologist who realized that doctors' traditional method of judgment (check to see if the baby is crying "weakly") left many babies at risk of dying needlessly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apgar_score
I think if the profession stopped worrying about "replacing" doctors and rather, augmenting them, I think the discussions would be more beneficial.
Re: Can a Computer Replace Your Doctor?
#5What I would like to see more in these discussions is the possibility of using computers for triage in medicine...too often, these kinds of "will computers replace us" discussions focus on the computers doing everything ...but how about a computer being trained to do as much of the "mechanical" work of a doctor's judgment as possible? Leaving the humans to focus on the 5% An example I have in mind is Apgar's score, a…
Well said. That's pretty much what I'm trying to do with my new startup, Enlitic: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/530261/a-startup-hopes-...
Furthermore, the things the author of the NYT piece complains about are exactly the things that even the simplest machine learning algorithms handle easily. I'm worried articles like this will hold back the adoption of effective analytics in medicine, since doctors have no understanding of modern machine learning technology and as a result make wildly incorrect assumptions about the limitations of our ability to use data to support clinical decisions.
Re: Can a Computer Replace Your Doctor?
#6Atul Gawande wrote about 'non-human' tools in medicine [0]. He advocated using checklists but he has also written about other tools. One I remember was a flow chart to predict some sickness. It outperformed humans solidly.
The biggest problem with checklists, flow charts and software (one older example is MYCIN [1]) is adaption. If the medical practitioners don't want the systems they are going to fail. He also writes a lot about that in the book. He tried to introduce it into hospitals but the professionals often ignored the lists or just checked the boxes without actually checking the condition.
I personally imagine that a practitioner with a good system works the best or like Frederick P. Brooks said [2]:
> If indeed our objective is to build computer systems that solve very challenging problems, my thesis is that IA > AI that is, that intelligence amplifying systems can, at any given level of available systems technology, beat AI systems. That is, a machine and a mind can beat a mind-imitating machine working by itself.
[0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Checklist_Manifesto
Re: Can a Computer Replace Your Doctor?
#7What I would like to see more in these discussions is the possibility of using computers for triage in medicine...too often, these kinds of "will computers replace us" discussions focus on the computers doing everything ...but how about a computer being trained to do as much of the "mechanical" work of a doctor's judgment as possible? Leaving the humans to focus on the 5% An example I have in mind is Apgar's score, a…
Doctors are expensive. Computers are cheap. The more we can replace doctors, teachers, taxi drivers and other baumol workers with machines, the more consumer surplus is generated.
Re: Can a Computer Replace Your Doctor?
#8What I would like to see more in these discussions is the possibility of using computers for triage in medicine...too often, these kinds of "will computers replace us" discussions focus on the computers doing everything ...but how about a computer being trained to do as much of the "mechanical" work of a doctor's judgment as possible? Leaving the humans to focus on the 5% An example I have in mind is Apgar's score, a…
Doctors are expensive. Computers are cheap. The more we can replace doctors, teachers, taxi drivers and other baumol workers with machines, the more consumer surplus is generated.
I don't think that is true, by not paying doctors, teachers, taxi drivers, etc. the less consumers there are.
Re: Can a Computer Replace Your Doctor?
#9As someone who has been in and out of the US medical system, I strongly agree with the opening statement by Dr. Wadhwa. In my experience there are a lot of incompetent and immoral doctors. As a patient I need a trusted opinion, for I myself have not spent the last ten years in training to become a doctor. So who or what can I turn to? The medical system in this country feels too badly broken. I need another option.
Cochrane Collaborations review the research amd perform meta analysis to tell us what does or doesn't work.
The English NICE recommend treatment based on cost effectiveness.
The "friends and family" test should be used by all English hospitals and that might give you some information.
I'm not sure how you find out whether a particular surgeon is an incompetant butcher.
Re: Can a Computer Replace Your Doctor?
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doctors are expensive. Computers are cheap. The more we can replace doctors, teachers, taxi drivers and other baumol workers with machines, the more consumer surplus is generated.
I don't think that is true, by not paying doctors, teachers, taxi drivers, etc. the less consumers there are.
The surplus provides money for the consumers to spend on other things.