There is a worldwide shortage of doctors. More than half of the world population doesn’t have of has bad access to healthcare. The waiting lines are very long in a lot of places. AI could offer a solution here, giving more people access to health advice of good quality.
Although artificial intelligence (AI) is still in the early stages of testing and adoption in the healthcare space, many say it will have a huge impact in this field. Some even say it will gradually come to replace doctors.
Babylon Health, a company based in the United Kingdom, is testing an AI medical chatbot in Rwanda. It works like this: a patient enters information into the chatbot. The chatbot then aggregates the data and suggests solutions for the patient. It recommends the patient to see a doctor or to get a prescription rather than diagnosing him/her, although Babylon claims it could. Babylon also launched a site with the same idea, making it possible for people around the world to fill in their symptoms and get possible diagnosis.
Even though some are sceptical about the accuracy of the new ‘doctor’, the chatbot even passed mock medical exams with a higher score compared to a human doctor. Furthermore, in questions it had seen before, it had 98% accuracy, so once a machine learns something, it never forgets.
Although a lot of benefits are scientifically proven, some senior doctors are sceptical of the claims robots will replace humans, stating the human aspect of health will remain too important and can never fully be replaced by a robot.
What are your thoughts about this topic? Would you want to be seen by artificial intelligence instead of a human doctor? Do you think it could be possible that a machine can completely replace a doctor and is it ethical to replace doctors by artificial intelligence?
Babylon Health (2018). Babylon Health. [online] Available at: https://www.babylonhealth.com/news [Accessed 29 Sep. 2018].
Norman, A.(2018). Your future doctor may not be human. This is the rise of AI in medicine. [online] Futurism. Available at: https://futurism.com/ai-medicine-doctor [Accessed 30 Sep. 2018].
Vallancien, G.(2016). Tomorrow’s doctors will be replaced by machines, so their role will be that of advisor. [online] L’Atelier BNP Paribas. Available at: https://atelier.bnpparibas/en/health/article/tomorrow-s-doctors-replaced-machines-role-advisor [Accessed 29 Sep. 2018].
Wilson, C.(2018). Is an AI chatbot really better than a human doctor? [online] New Scientist. Available at: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2173056-is-an-ai-chatbot-really-better-than-a-human-doctor/ [Accessed 29 Sep. 2018].
Hi Evelien, thank you for your article about this interesting topic.
I think there are multiple sides to the question ‘will artificial intelligence replace human doctors?’
AI could help doctors, but will never replace them since human relationships will always remain an important aspect in healthcare. I think AI could help doctors to identify causes since robots can access information that doctors might have forgotten, but they should leave the human aspects to the doctor. In my opinion, the technology fails in the areas where one should understand the patient’s history, communicate with the person undergoing a diagnosis and understanding the emotional and physical factors of the diagnosis over a person.
It sounds somewhat unethical trying to replace all doctors, but that rises another question: is it ethical to not use expert systems when for certain tasks that machines demonstrably perform better?
Thanks for raising so many interesting questions with regard to AI in healthcare. I want to share my thoughts on the service offered by Babylon Health’s AI medical chatbot. I can imagine that such a chatbot is more accurate than a human when just comparing their performance with regard to having information about symptoms and inferring a disease and respective treatment. However, I do believe that a chatbot like this cannot replace seeing a human doctor. One reason is that humans often interpret and describe symptoms incorrectly. I think that it is way easier to show a doctor e.g. your throat than describing in words to a chatbot how your tonsils look. Moreover, for an accurate treatment often medical test have to be conducted such as blood test, blood pressure test or reaction test. For such test, the consultation of a doctor or test center are inevitable. As a result, I would agree that AI chatbots as you described it can be a good alternative for first diagnoses (e.g. instead of googling your symptoms) but cannot replace human doctor consultations fully.
Dear Evelien,
Thank you for your insights.
As I see it, we should not fear that doctors will be replaced by AI. There are three vital reasons. One, as Francis already mentioned in his comment, is empathy. I cannot imagine patients trusting a chatbot in life-altering diagnosis. There will always be a human factor needed to build trust, listen to patients’ needs and guide through a therapy.
Secondly, physicians have a non-linear working method. It is true to say that some, if not majority, of their work consists of repeatable, standard tasks. However, it often also requires creativity and problem-solving skills – so called out of the box thinking – that algorithms and robots will never have.
Finally, we shouldn’t treat AI as our enemy. Technological innovations serve the purpose of helping people, not fighting them. The arduous, monotonous tasks that medical staff has to perform does not create any added-value in their effectiveness. The automation, streamlining these processes mean that doctors may finally be able to focus on reaching their full potential as well as being more available to counsel and reassure patients.
As Guy Vallancien, author of a book “Medicine without doctors” said:
“A machine has the advantage of never getting tired or depressed. Its hands don’t shake. It has a strong point that we don’t possess – i.e. when it doesn’t understand something, it will stop. Human beings tend to forge ahead and push themselves.”