AI in Healthcare

[Eyak1971]

Has anyone experienced AI in their Healthcare system. Wonder if it will make transplantation more efficient and safe. I guess from stats the actualsurgery is fairly safe overall but the acquiring and transporting of organs needs a major overhaul. Maybe AI could do a better job.politico.com/news/2023/12/0...

[Bassetmommer]

My med center has something called the DaVinci arm. They use for surgery on large people. This issue is there was only one doctor trained on it when I went for my eval in 2020. Hopefully that has changed.

[Eyak1971 in reply to Bassetmommer]

Thanks for sharing.

[Darlenia]

Not yet but expect we'll see it within the decade. AI is a supercomputer's ability "to perform the cognitive functions we associate with human minds, such as perceiving, reasoning, learning, interacting with an environment, problem solving, and even exercising creativity". I understand that Siri, Alexa and voice based services have some of that capability at a very basic level. I recently read a feature on a lady who acquired access to AI to diagnose a rare medical condition that none of her specialists noticed. Interestingly, my hubby took an Ancestry DNA test that showed he had a rather rare "sprinter's gene" involving fast-twitch muscles found in super athletes. We told his transplant center. Surprised, they didn't really know what to do with it or how it might affect his heart which was in a-fib at the time. They simply didn't "know". (His heart is fine today.) I wish the center had access to AI to answer our questions at that time. Eventually, if AI is used properly, I suspect conditions will be diagnosed far earlier and with far greater specificity, I suspect medications will be tailored and formulated to a patient's exact biological needs, I suspect some conditions in a patient will indeed be "re-engineered" to stave off critical outcomes before they happen, and much more. I suspect many kidney failures will be prevented, artificial kidneys will be manufactured to a patients exact needs, etc. Perhaps transplant centers and oversight agencies will slowly go away as the leading causes for kidney failure are forced to retreat (diabetes, autoimmune conditions, etc.). AI is human brains on steroids..it actually "thinks" and "initiates" and "concludes" at lightening speed. This is extraordinary. I have so many questions! Will we be able to access this on our own for labs, etc? Will we have a tiny machine in our homes which will analyze a drop of blood and give everyone a diagnosis and prescription in seconds? Will we be given a code that designates what goes into our tailor-made medication that we may need? What will the role of doctors be? Will they become medical IT specialists managing the info and outcomes and directing patients from machine to machine? I think it's a very bold (yet cautionary) time in history. This technology can be used for the good, also the bad. It has the potential to vastly extend our life - to make the world a better place...or not. We will need exceptional leadership in this area to keep this train on track.

[Eyak1971 in reply to Darlenia]

Thanks for sharing. So many questions but cannot wait for the answers. Like all future discoveries you wish they had happened in your lifetime but some things in the future are not so positive and you are afraid of what your children will face. As far as job security for doctors I think they are also considering new technology means for them. I mentioned to my doctor that all my blood tests were numbers and couldn't a computer come up with a diagnosis of my present health status and propose a health plan from an updated data base and free up some of his time. I mentioned that I did a urine test for my urologist and the result printout included a medication list defining which medication would work best for the infection. His response was that was his job.

[Darlenia in reply to Eyak1971]

Yes! There's going to be exceptionally strong pushback. The medical industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the hospitals....I'm sure this is seen as a threat. And that's very concerning - I feel strongly that the ones who stand to gain the most - the patients - will likely not benefit to the extent we should! There's billions of dollars at stake, those that have the money now will spend it to keep the status quo and they likely will achieve it.

[Eyak1971 in reply to Darlenia]

How true. Politics, money, and big business are usually the greatest foes when it comes to change that benefits the common. It has been said that doctors are the new millionaires. I would question that generally due to their high cost of education and insurance but I had a doctor quit who I believed overcharged for services when I compared bills with other doctors quit when obamacare was passed. And it is true compared to doctors and patient's incomes doctor incomes like ceo incomes dramatically out perform compared to their patients or workers. So losing that income would be just as hard as any worker. It would be a new low if doctors had to file for unemployment because they had been replaced by technology. Even for many workers it has been happening for many years. But only time will tell how AI will affect transplantation but any medical field has opportunity for improvement. Think of the progress that could be made in cancer treatment.

[horsie63]

As an auditor I use a limited AI to run my data analysis. As a Certified Fraud Examiner I have reservations about the use of AI and the potential for fraud, which has already been seen. AI is just more advanced Machine Learning (ML) and is only as good as what it's "learned". In IT you have to be careful of Garbage In, Garbage Out. I'm not ready to trust AI yet for my healthcare.

[Eyak1971 in reply to horsie63]

Thank you for responding. I am sure you are not alone in your perspective. Very often controls on new technology appear far behind ghe need. Businesses centered on making profit sometimes loose sight of what is really good for society as a whole. Right now the government is in catch up mode.