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AI in Healthcare: Smarter Care or More Questions? (beehaw.org)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/science@beehaw.org
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Technology is changing healthcare in ways we couldn’t imagine a decade ago. AI is helping doctors analyze scans faster, predict patient risks, and even suggest treatment options based on data. At the same time, wearable devices and health apps let patients track their own heart rate, sleep, and activity levels in real time.

But it’s not all simple. How much should we rely on AI? Can it really understand the nuances of human health, or will it always need a doctor’s judgment to make sense of the data?

I’m curious—how do you see AI shaping the future of healthcare? Will it make care smarter and more accessible, or are there risks we need to watch closely?

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[–] 10 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

You need to ask yourself two questions:

  • Who's pushing AI - be it in healthcare or any other sector?
  • For what purpose?

It doesn't take a genius to figure out it's not about smarter care, and it's not in your best interest either.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    Actually, there are doctors that want AI. Just they may not want it like most tech firms are currently pushing it. Each hospital system has a huge database or two or three with massive amounts of patient data. Doctors have talked about setting up data scientists to sort through that data for more effective outcomes to various health issues. It turns out it is too much data for a team of data scientists to sort through. AI might help with that. Just not the LLMs that are being pushed today.

    Some of the challenges: How do you pull that data without personal identification or payment info. Keep in mind John Doe in Somewhere, somestate might be the only person in that state with Obscure Condition, so would be easily identifiable. Because once you have data that may support better outcomes, you'd definitely want to share that with other healthcare systems and government health agencies. Also, how do you use it ethically, something none of the current mainstream AI companies are really going to help you with. How do you share this with insurance companies without them punishing individual patients?

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago

    You make a really good point. AI could be helpful, but only if it’s used in the right way. There’s just too much data for people to go through on their own, and AI might help spot patterns that could improve care.

    But like you said, it has to be done carefully. Patient privacy, ethical use of data, and making sure insurance companies don’t misuse the info are really important. AI should support doctors, not replace their judgment.

    Maybe the best way forward is letting AI do the heavy data work, while doctors use their experience and judgment to decide what it really means. It’ll be interesting to see how we find that balance.

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