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by jph00
4283 days ago
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Well said. That's pretty much what I'm trying to do with my new startup, Enlitic: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/530261/a-startup-hopes-... Furthermore, the things the author of the NYT piece complains about are exactly the things that even the simplest machine learning algorithms handle easily. I'm worried articles like this will hold back the adoption of effective analytics in medicine, since doctors have no understanding of modern machine learning technology and as a result make wildly incorrect assumptions about the limitations of our ability to use data to support clinical decisions. |
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Considering the impact of placebo medicines, I can't help but wonder if there's an element of psychology that needs to be noticed and addressed here (and whether it is actually key that a doctor is respected (for the right reasons, obviously. Specifically: that they will be able to address the problem addressed to them)). My hypothesis is that a good doctor is someone who asks the right questions but also looks for questions that need to be asked for that individual's needs. Example: the patient has the symptom of a broken arm, but why is that. Is there something more here? Is there some form of domestic violence involved? Or... do they have a weakness in the opposite arm, and when cycling they are more likely to fall off.
One of my doctor friends said to me that they'd recently shown that the better the Doctor communicates with a patient, the lower the chance of lawsuits. I like to call it 'managing expectations', from the whole project managementy world although someone will shoot me for saying that!
It may well be the case that on paper checklists work best, but I assert that there's a lot more personality and social interaction to a doctor than anyone initially realises. The challenge in this space is marrying the two concepts.