Jonathan D. Linkous, CEO
Stories about the threat of advanced medical innovations on the medical profession have flooded the internet. Here are a few of the eye-catching headlines:- London hospitals to replace doctors and nurses with AI for some tasks
- AI Better Than Docs at Catching Skin Cancers
- Prepare Yourselves, Robots Will Soon Replace Doctors In Healthcare
- When Will AI Replace Doctors?
- Algorithms will out-perform Doctors in just 10 years’ time
Help or Replace?
The consensus among most experts is that there is no danger to the demand for physicians or nurses. However, there probably will be a shift in demand among types of providers from those that simply diagnose to those providing treatment and intervention. For example, developing automated applications for eye exams including refraction, the identification of diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma may result in a significant upsurge in demand for treatment, reducing the need for optometrists and maybe increasing demand for ophthalmologists. However, for allied professions, the peril may be closer. Many allied professionals are involved in tasks that can be fully or partially replaced through AI, automation, and robotics. This is low hanging fruit in the market, as the lobby groups for these professions are significantly weaker than physicians and nurses and their settings are disbursed throughout many locations. Bertalan Meskó, M.D., PhD, author of the Medical Futurist.com identifies nine areas of medicine that are already experiencing significant automation-related disruption. (http://medicalfuturist.com/artificial-intelligence-will-redesign-healthcare/)- Mining medical records
- Designing treatment plans
- Assisting repetitive jobs
- Getting the most out of in-person and online consultations
- Health assistance and medication management
- Precision medicine
- Drug creation
- Open AI to help people make healthier choices and decisions
- Analyzing a healthcare system