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by halukakin 1271 days ago
Pre-internet, MD's main job was to use their memory to comb through an immense level of knowledge and find the best fitting explanation for a patient's complaints. A pretty hard task, mostly suitable for very smart people.

Now with internet, it is a process waiting to be disrupted. I would say it is already over due.
3 comments
CoastalCoder 1271 days ago
I'd love to hear some physicians' takes on this.

I have a romantic notion that good physicians look at additional clues to figure out when the patient's complaints or answers are red herrings.

And that the physicians have some useful context from location, news, experience with the patient, etc. that a modern AI wouldn't.

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sinenomine 1271 days ago
As you said, this is a milestone long overdue. The next frontier of transformative success in the medicine should come from finding novel, effective treatments to common chronic diseases.

We need to harness AI/AGI in all possible capacities to help us approach this goal.

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nradov 1271 days ago
The most common chronic diseases can be prevented effectively through proper diet, physical activity, and avoidance of toxins (substance abuse). This is not novel, it has been known for a long time. (Of course there are a minority of patients who just have bad genetics and will suffer from chronic diseases regardless of their lifestyle choices.)

AI technologies are already being applied to some phases of the drug development process. But the low-hanging fruit has mostly already been picked. The odds are low of AI ever finding a miracle drug that mimics the effects of good diet and exercise. The main bottleneck in drug development is phase-3 clinical trials, and AI can't help much with that.

As for AGI, we're not making any visible progress towards that goal. So don't count on it being available in our lifetimes.

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rafaelero 1271 days ago
> As for AGI, we're not making any visible progress towards that goal. So don't count on it being available in our lifetimes.

Weird take after all the advances we saw in 2022.

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hodgesrm 1271 days ago
> Now with internet, it is a process waiting to be disrupted. I would say it is already over due.

Why is everything in this space about disruption?

Doctors use the Internet all the time. One of my kids is a resident in internal medicine and uses it regularly to find information. Example: videos of medical procedures.

ChatGPT and LLMs in general look like a great extension to existing search. But it still needs somebody to keep an eye on it to ensure it's not confidently spouting bullshit. This looks like something that needs to be carefully controlled (read: regulated) if you want to avoid very serious consequences for unlucky patients.

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