[kdtop]

Medicine is not all about diagnostics. Much of it is also about case management. Encouraging people to do the things that they should have learned from their mothers. Probably 80% or more of my intellectual work as PCP I suspect could soon be accomplished by a computer. Buy many seniors (who tend to need more medical care) don't want to interface with a computer and prefer instead to have a human being that they trust and who they know are working to help them. Once you get your medical care from a computer screen, ala' getting money from an ATM, things will change.

But I agree that the future is likely to change, as it becomes easier for non-medical persons to access and understand medical information and recommendations. It will just then come down to regulatory barriers. When will a computer be given a medical license? 20 years? 50 yrs? 5 yrs?