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Ogre in Disguise or Angel We Need in Healthcare?
AI can go above and beyond certain aspects of medical research and reasoning, but along with it comes inherent bias, and we must view it realistically.
Advances in AI and the platforms that support it have been speeding ahead at incredible increments, as we’ve witnessed by DeepSeek and various iterations of Anthropic AI. We must consider the potential benefits and unforeseen drawbacks of these advancements in healthcare.
To date, what we have been seeing in AI in healthcare is directed to managing data, data systems, and monetizing areas where potential is seen. This leaves us with one area that is of vital interest to all of us: we, the patients, need to understand how we are being considered. In other words, is healthcare and medicine, more directed toward management and giving less consideration to patients and their care in diagnosis and treatment?
As one physician recently told me, he is leaving medicine and doesn't want anything to do with it in the future. In his words, he felt that private equity and AI were taking over healthcare, but not in a good way. "When I entered medicine," he said, "we had all the patients' information on one index card."
At that point, he had a somewhat defeated look on his face, and he didn't say anything more. Several months ago, another physician…
