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].
