AI can’t replicate this key part of practicing medicine
I’ve heard “WebMD said it could be cancer” countless times in my 15 years working as an emergency medicine physician. I get it: When someone is feeling unwell or hoping a worrying symptom will go away, it makes sense for them to turn to easily accessible resources. As people become increasingly familiar with artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT, it’s only a matter of time before patients turn to these tools in search of a diagnosis or second opinion.
Change is already on the horizon. ChatGPT passed the United States Medical Licensing Exams, And recently the New England Journal of Medicine announced NEJM AI, a whole new journal devoted fully to artificial intelligence in clinical practice. These and many other developments have left many wondering (and sometimes worrying) what role AI will have in the future of health care. It’s already predicting how long patients will stay in the hospital, denying insurance claims, and supporting pandemic preparedness efforts.
While there are areas within medicine ripe for the assistance of AI, any assertion that it will replace health care providers or make our roles less important is pure hyperbole. Even with all its promise, it’s hard to imagine how AI will ever replicate that gut feeling honed by sitting at the bedside and placing our hands on thousands of patients. Recently, I had an encounter that revealed one of the limitations for AI at the patient’s bedside, now and perhaps even in the future. While working in the emergency room, I saw a woman with chest pain. Based on nearly every algorithm and clinical decision rule that providers like me use to determine next steps in care of cases like this, my patient was safe for discharge. But something didn’t feel right. It’s hard to say exactly what tipped me off that day. But my gut instinct compelled me to do more instead of just discharging her. When I repeated her blood tests and electrocardiogram a short while later, the results were unequivocal — my patient was having a heart attack.
We have algorithms to guide us, but we still need to select the right one and navigate the sequence correctly despite sometimes conflicting information. Even then, they aren’t flawless. It’s these intricacies of our jobs that likely cause many providers to cast a suspicious eye at the looming overlap of artificial intelligence and the practice of medicine...Read more
Will AI diminish physicians'' ability to trust there gut?
