Doctor in Your Pocket
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making a major breakthrough in the healthcare industry of today. In the article "The Artificially Intelligent Doctor Will Hear You Now" by Simon Parkin in the MIT Technology Review, he talks about an AI-based app that is being tested in the U.K. known as Babylon.
I discussed in an earlier post about an Artificial Intelligence here in the U.S. known as Watson. AI is having a major impact on the healthcare industry. There were many benefits and disadvantages to this type of technology. One of the major benefits I saw from it, was that a computer can recall information a lot faster than a doctor can and could be a beneficial resources. Watson draws its' information from 600,000 medical evidence reports, 1.5 million patient records and clinical trials, and 2 million pages of text from medical journals related to cancer to provide information to doctors. That's a lot of info to expect anyone to know! Doctor's can't possible retain that much information, hence, advantages of AI in the healthcare industry. Disadvantages were the potential lack of doctor-client relationships, doctors using AI as a crutch, ethical dilemmas, and the possibility of particular job positions being lost and replaced by AI. Simon writes "There are about 10,000 known human diseases, yet human doctors are only able to recall a fraction of them at any given moment. As many as 40,500 patients die annually in an ICU in the U.S. as a result os misdiagnosis, according to a 2012 Johns Hopkins study." I do believe in instances like this, AI would be very beneficial and as a resource, but only by those means.
Parsa, the founder and CEO of Babylon created an AI-based app that was designed to improve doctors' hit rate so that misdiagnosis and deaths as indicated above do not happen. Babylon is a very interesting piece of technology that is used on your phone! It is just an app you can download! Users of the app can report symptoms of their illness into the app and then the app will check their signs and symptoms against a database of diseases. The app will then take into account the patient's medical history, genetics, environment, behavior, biology and circumstances and then offer an appropriate course of action! Similar to Watson, Babylon uses a network of databases but not just for cancer. Babylon can analyze "hundreds of millions of combinations of symptoms" in a matter of minutes! Once combining all this info together related to the patients history and given signs and symptoms, the app can recommend what course of action the patient should take. Whether it be go the the pharmacy and get this OTC drug, book an appointment with the doctor, or go to the emergency room! On top of this app telling you what you should do due to your circumstances, it also is able to "constantly monitor information on the kidneys, liver, bones, cholesterol levels, and more, along with data collected from wearable devices that monitor sleep patterns and heart rate." It's like a fitbit on steroids! Because of machine learning, if it notices any changes from your baseline it will then alert you, predicting a potential illness before it occurs! 
Doctors are able to view the app's findings and information via a medical portal. Because of this, a doctor can consult with a patient via text, phone call, or video chat. In essence, this is pretty cool because the patient could have faster access to a doctor vs scheduling an appointment, waiting, etc. Although this app is pretty phenomenal and can do everything and anything under the sun that a doctor can, it is regulated to not make formal diagnoses. Parsa is hoping to regulation lifted soon because he thinks, "Machines are able to recall every known disease perfectly when examining symptoms. And unlike human don't have confirmation bias." In contrast, Clare Aitchison says, "While it's true that computer recall is always going to be better than that of even the best doctor, what computers can't do is communicate with people."
It's insane how far technology has developed because of computer programming and machine learning. AI systems such as Watson and Babylon are making a huge breakthrough in the healthcare field which can be very beneficial and detrimental. I believe that AI in the healthcare industry can be very beneficial as indicated above and in my earlier post. When time is of the essence, turn to it for assistance. But when time is not of the essence, doctors should use it as a resource and not a crutch. Parsa makes a good point in saying machines are able to recall every known disease perfectly without examining the symptoms and don't have human bias. And Aitchison makes a good point in saying computers can't communicate with people. I don't think the app's regulation on making formal diagnoses should be lifted, that's the doctors job. I think the app is a good resource as to getting information and talking to a doctor when needed, but do not believe it should be the only source to treat an individual. Computers cannot communicate with humans. An individual can lie about their symptoms to trick the computer into giving them a particular diagnosis in order to get certain drugs. There has to be some regulation to it. That's why although AI is good in helping doctors with diagnoses, pulling information together based on the patients signs, symptoms, and history, and good with presenting a possible course of treatment, I believe it is the doctor's role to have the final say in the diagnosis, treatment, and plan of care. Doctor's should only use AI as a resource and not a crutch.
Links for More Information Regarding Artificial Intelligence:
Images Obtained From:
http://tropicalpost.com/2016/01/14/babylon-raises-about-25m-in-series-a-round-to-create-the-worlds-most-advanced-ai-platform-for-medicine/
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600868/the-artificially-intelligent-doctor-will-hear-you-now/
No comments:
Post a Comment