'The AI doctor will see you...eventually' article - Anyone else concerned?

[PRJ20]

This is an article I saw in The Economist 4 days ago (27th March):

economist.com/leaders/2024/...

The sub-heading of the article states:

"Artificial intelligence holds huge promise in health care. But it also faces massive barriers"

I know that, as has been mentioned on other posts here in the past year, AI is already being used in the NHS (please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) and will be used more-and-more. This concerns me greatly as, apart from anything else, my understanding of AI (whatever field it's used in), the 'intelligence' it's working from - i.e. In this case [our] medical notes - have/need to be accurate. I'd be really interested to know what other members feelings and/or concerns and experiences are re this.

These are my concerns

My notes, as with many members on the forum (probably the majority), are far from accurate. In fact, the complete opposite is the case and I have an on-going fight with my current GP surgery and other departments of the NHS (mainly but, not exclusively, the Psychiatric & Psychology/Psychotherapy Services, as well as the Endo Service, which are linked) as a result to:

-- get my notes corrected so that they revert to the contemporaneous notes they're legally supposed to be;

-- find missing notes; and

-- have the original results of Autoimmune Thyroid Disease/Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, which seemingly started off as what appears to be Transient Graves'/Hyperactive, though I did also have a "thyroid bruit" that is supposedly pathognomonic with Graves' and a "small, smooth [exophthalmic] goitre" on initial presentation and examination (totally different GP surgery), along with the TED that was and remains prevalent.

That's the shortened version of what I face, with my current GP practice (from what I've managed to ascertain in both writing and the notes I have had access to to-date), in conjunction (or cahoots) with [probably] the 2 latter services above, having now changed my original diagnosis to one of Hypothyroidism for which they have never treated me nor even examined me for!

Endnote: If you have problems accessing the complete article without registering, just prepend the above URL with 12ft.io/ 👍🏽🙂

ETA: Link to a post from helvella 6 years ago the first comment below and I do agree with his concerns re the drawbacks/possible (or highly likely) problems with AI, as well as being able to see the problems of "seeing the same doctor twice" particularly in today's NHS (aka Non-existent Health Service).

[PRJ20]

helvella 's post from 6 years ago following an article by a GP in The Guardian on how seeing the same doctor could save your life, which AI couldn't do... healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

[Marz]

Having lived in Crete from 2004 until 2019 there will be huge gaps in my health history - or is AI so clever they can mind read from afar ? Then they plan to link banking too - that little chip will be so busy ! I for one am concerned about the future - for my grandchildten.

With the plans from the WHO breathing down our necks, AI along with our health will be controlled.

[Forestgarden]

I agree, the AI will only be as good as the information it is given. Accuracy? Completeness?

[Zephyrbear]

Are these the new “doctors” they’ve been promising the NHS all these years?

[AKatieD]

Not sure AI appointments would be any worse than what we have at the minute, given the state of human g.p.s.

I have always found NHS 111 quite helpful and thorough, albeit long winded. I imagine the script for an AI based system would be like this, a set of questions to be answered leading to a conclusion. One of which would probably be referral to human.

Like everything, the result depends on the quality of the system used, and that may well be the sticking point!

[crimple]

PRJ20 they have started to use AI to check X ray pics. Seems to be good reason for that as they pick up on very small fractures. X rays are interpreted very quickly but a radiographer is still at hand if there is any doubt. I saw a news item a couple of weeks ago about it. Also I am sure I saw mammograms being interpreted with AI, they definitely picked up more on smaller lumps/ cellular change.

[humanbean]

Doctors have kept their opinions of me secret for most of my life. I had no legal right to know what they had written about me, and what they had recorded as my diagnoses (which wasn't always what they said to me).

I don't remember the exact year it happened - was it the late 1990s when people could get copies of their records for the first time?

When I eventually got copies of my records I was shocked at the number of mistakes. I was also shocked at how often my words had been twisted in such a way as to minimise what I had to say.

[Batty1]

AI is only as smart as the person inputting the information… scary