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blitcap t1_jdmoecx wrote

I have no medical background so I have no idea if this could be true but my guess in the later stages of AI general practitioner/family doctors will be affected. AI Diagnosis at home would catch things early and offer solutions.

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3SquirrelsinaCoat t1_jdmpoui wrote

Probably for some things, but currently, a family dr's schedule is insane, just rushing from one room to the next, talking to you for 10 minutes and they're out. If at home diagnostics become widespread (and I agree, I think they will and it's already happening), then the doctor has less to sort through. Little Jimmy with a cough doesn't need to come in because the at home diagnostics say, "it's just some allergies." That's one less patient for the doctor to see so they can spend more time dealing with higher level health problems.

There's a concept in medicine called "operating at the top of your license." That is, the MD should be spending most of their time dealing with the really tough cases and not wasting their deep knowledge on Little Jimmy's cough. It's one of the lines that gets trumpeted a bunch - AI liberates you to focus on more meaningful work. That's true. It's also code for lower level job replacement. Family doctors are going to need fewer nurses and physician assistants.

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QuantumQualia t1_jdnuica wrote

I don’t know about that - the higher level work is just as easily automated. AI is much more capable of scanning literature and case outcomes to make a specialist recommendation than any human being. If anything my instinct is that nurses will be able to function as translators of complex automated medical diagnoses and high level diagnosticians will lose out.

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[deleted] t1_jdq1xx1 wrote

[deleted]

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QuantumQualia t1_jdrg9o4 wrote

We can hope! It will still become a much more difficult and uncertain place to live in the medium term though.

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ConfirmedCynic t1_jdplur0 wrote

It would have to be certified before it would be allowed to, for example, issue prescriptions. I have a feeling that this would be very long in coming, seeing as it more or less would require doctors to voluntarily put themselves out of work.

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