LETTER TO HILATH: Can AI become a better doctor?

Dear friend,

Even the best of medical doctors could miss something. Sometimes doctors' actions put patients in doubt when they give different medical opinions on the same subject making patients wonder if there is a lack of qualification in them as they might've studied in different countries or is it just a case of being hostile towards another colleague in their field or is it a case of the doctor also having a bad day and is just unintentionally unable to do a proper diagnosis. Since doctors are humans too and might not remember all that they learnt especially while faced with uncommon type of cases, even they could make errors. That seems like an instance where AI could come in very handy.

Reading up a lot on the internet about a certain ailment one can only sometimes wonder why a doctor advised the way he/she did while there are several medical literature giving additional information about which the doctor didn't care to mention. While doctors most of the time say not to google medical problems it becomes confusing and frustrating when some doctors do not actually give a satisfactory answer to some questions put to them and just remain silent. An AI would obviously never become personal or biased while making a diagnosis, and can certainly analyze a person's symptoms more thoroughly and could do a more detailed check based on the vast amount of knowledge it's been fed and therefore does not need an action such as the human recall which is naturally limited. However, there are also those doctors who go out of their way to facilitate and direct patients to reach the right diagnosis and such humane actions might lack in an IA dominated world.

While this letter is not intended to make the very important and priceless service of medical doctors redundant, it seems AI's help could be considered to reduce the amount of misdiagnosis and sometimes save the time that is spent in the laborious process of a patient going through a hierarchy of medical titles, making appointments to specialists, waiting in queues and having to do strings of tests one after another several times. For instance, in situations where a doctor has to give several additional tests to do after already having done an exhaustive amount of tests, it becomes a painstakingly slow routine of doing tests, waiting for results, going back to consult several times and again doing another kind of tests thereby creating an impatient period of waiting and suffering that can easily span more than a month under several circumstances which in turn, puts a delay in getting a correct and urgently needed cure. Sometimes a longstanding but unidentified malady can continue making a patient suffer mostly due to the fact that one wasn't directed to the correct specialist by the currently advising doctor. In such a case too, AI holds more promise in directing the patient to getting the relevant medical care as an AI would have a vast wealth of medical knowledge that can be accessed quickly. Furthermore, the service of an AI becomes more appealing in a situation where a patient has to get an already familiar repetitive physical therapy service but first has to go through the process of consulting a doctor in order to fulfill the formality of having a piece of paper signed before getting access to therapy.

On a more darker note, the intention of doctors can become murky and doubtful if one has to do repeated consultations with certain doctors, especially those in the clinics who charge a hefty fee for every consultation (if it is past a measly 5 days from the last consultation) and if they do not facilitate patients getting in touch with them via an easy way even to ask a simple question but instead require another physical visit to the clinic. It leaves room to think whether the medical profession is being abused in a sneaky favor of earning something extra by making patients have frequent visits. An example of how the 5-day free review consultation does not produce any fruitful result to a patient is in a situation when some tests given by specialists cannot be done soon or the results of tests are not received within the 5 days. Hence, the hefty fee paid for the first consultation only produced a request for tests without any diagnosis and without any medication as the doctor would obviously be unable to issue anything useful without test results. In a country like the Maldives where a lot of patients would be from the islands who are visiting the capital Male' for specialist consultations, such visitors would have to bear extra costs of staying in the capital until they receive a final diagnosis. Furthermore, there are certain tests that are done by sending a sample to another country which again lengthens the process.

In reaching a more speedier and more thorough approach to such current medical hindrances, AI seems like a hopeful savior to deal with such current setbacks.

Sincerely yours,

XX