Comment by ErrantX
8 hours ago
Doctors make errors all the time though, so the real argument is about the error percentage. If AIs is lower then it's safer (but it's hard to have that convo, I recognise).
Besides; this article was about diagnosis not prescribing. It's pretty obvious, I think, that diagnosis is one area where AI will perform extremely well in the long run.
I think there are two metrics; the first is outright misdiagnosis, which studies put between 5 and 8% in US/Europe. That's a meaningful number to tackle.
Secondly; overdiagnosis. Where a Dr says on balance it could be X on a difficult to diagnose but dangerous problem (usually cancer). The impact of overdiagnosis is significant in terms of resources, mental health, cost etc.
The bar for making ai useful is much lower though. It's enough to be better than nothing.
Large populations also in the technically rich countries simply do not have access to a doctor.
in Poland which has a free public Healthcare it takes literal years to get a single appointment sometimes.
Do you believe the issue is because they don't have enough technicians to diagnose or because they don't have enough x-ray machines? Or in a ER environment, how an AI would speed up things in a real way that improves patients' lives?
We just minted the term "cognitive debt" for software engineers that cannot keep up with what the AI spits out. How would that apply to ER doctors, or any other kind of doctor?