AI in healthcare, 2020. The humans will take it from here.

Would you accept a diagnosis by an AI? I would, but there is nothing new here! We have had machine informed decisions in healthcare for generations now, we still need the trained medical staff to deal with the outputs.

For example, if I went into hospital after an auto accident with searing pain in my leg and the ER team rolled out an AI that pronounced, “his leg is broken”, I would accept that. But what happens next?

The AI that we have today can do some wonderful things, but we are still in the scenario where AIs are Prediction Machines. We feed them some data and the make a prediction. What we do with that prediction is what matters most - it is the judgement that is made and then the actions that follow that are most important.

For my broken leg, the machine may make a recommendation for treatment, but a trained medic needs to carry it out. They won’t do this blindly, they will bring their experience to bear and deliver the right treatment in the circumstances.

For me, I am happy for an AI to make a diagnosis from my x-ray. I am equally happy to have access to experienced healthcare professionals who will take it from there.