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Athena1's avatar

I'd like for there to be a Dr Robot that was FREE, for things like "I've had an ear infection for 2 weeks now that seems to still be getting worse, and I really think it might be time to consider antibiotics" type stuff. For the uninsured working poor, that would just be an absolute godsend.

That would, in my utopia, free up resources to better pay human family physicians (and other MDs) for the more complicated stuff, where you really need hands, eyeballs, and a real organic brain to figure out how to best help the patient. The chatbot can be a wonderful *assistant to* a physician there.

I can't imagine that a Dr Robot would be good at working with patient preference when it comes to treatments, too. Having another human who knows more than you help you figure out what sort of plan of action is best FOR YOU can't be replaced. Side effects that are borderline intolerable for one patient are no big deal at all for another. I don't envision the chatbots understanding "I have X to do, and I HAVE to be in the sun to do it, or it's seriously going to mess up my quality of life" type issues.

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b0b0's avatar

I have very little confidence in physicians. They seem flawed, rushed and not that bright. That sounds bad, I know. Perhaps I'm projecting. I've long wanted AI to come into the field. I suspect that AI medicine will be heavily controlled by the same outside forces that control so much of what physicians do and say.

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