| |MAY 20249CIOReviewmaximizing profit or investment return. It may very well recommend a leveraged buyout of a company such as that done by a private equity group. It won't care if such action carries a 90 percent chance that this will eventually lead to the dissolution of the company and the loss of jobs for all its employees. A wise human may not carry out such an action as he may view it as unethical. Now, let us apply the above understanding to the field of practice of medicine. AI may be very good at giving out differential diagnoses based on textbook symptoms. AI may be very good at diagnosing a 20-year-old with abdominal pain and a certain set of laboratory values. But for an 80-year-old patient who comes in with abdominal pain and a certain set of laboratory values associated with comorbidity, AI may not do such a good job. That is because AI relies on association using textbook symptoms and diagnostic test results, and an elderly patient with their comorbidity does not give textbook symptoms nor clear diagnostic test results. In the latter situation, a human doctor with extensive experience will do better. Making a diagnosis is one thing, but getting a patient to trust in a doctor and follow his/her diagnostic and treatment plan is an entirely different matter. I think an experienced human doctor will do much better in that department than AI. How could this understanding of the strengths & weaknesses of AI impact the education of our next generation of doctors? In the future, most intellectual professionals will learn to delegate mundane tasks to AI, thus freeing up time for us humans to do things that we tend to do better than machines. So, what kind of things do humans do better? In clinical medicine, what characterizes a good doctor is one who routinely educates their patients in ways such that the patients believe in, understand and trust their physician. A good doctor gives understanding to their patients in ways that free them from anxiety or uncertainty. To distinguish ourselves from AI in clinical medicine, we must become better teachers, capable of explaining things on a level and in a way that patients understand and relate to. That requires empathy, wisdom, insight and other human qualities. If we can achieve that, then we do not have to be concerned about AI replacing our doctors. To distinguish ourselves from AI in clinical medicine, we must become better teachers, capable of explaining things on a level and in a way that patients understand and relate to
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