Unless existing physicians' associations put up a fight, which they absolutely will, AI replacing the diagnosis aspect of a PCP is both probably one of the best applications of LLMs possible and one of the biggest impacts they can make for humanity.
PCPs are notorious for misdiagnoses, they're expensive, hasty, often times don't believe or listen to patients, and frequently just don't have all the data. This isn't necessarily their fault -- they're overworked and the medical industry isn't making things better -- but the reality is primariy care isn't working very well right now even in developed countries. Imagine in developing ones...
Diagnosing a patient is in many ways an expert system problem which computers are excellent at. Amassing the data from every medical textbook ever written, plus every study ever done, plus clinical conversations with patients and their medical history (the hardest part), and you have the best PCP ever made. Add a nurse to manage the physicality of it and one day connect data to the system to track lifestyle behaviors, sleep, and things people won't necessarily self-report, and you have something revolutionary. And AI is kinder and more compassionate, as the article said.
No wonder people have been trying to crack this nut for decades (albeit with minimal success). I hope the LLM revolution helps make another big round of progress.
PCPs are notorious for misdiagnoses, they're expensive, hasty, often times don't believe or listen to patients, and frequently just don't have all the data. This isn't necessarily their fault -- they're overworked and the medical industry isn't making things better -- but the reality is primariy care isn't working very well right now even in developed countries. Imagine in developing ones...
Diagnosing a patient is in many ways an expert system problem which computers are excellent at. Amassing the data from every medical textbook ever written, plus every study ever done, plus clinical conversations with patients and their medical history (the hardest part), and you have the best PCP ever made. Add a nurse to manage the physicality of it and one day connect data to the system to track lifestyle behaviors, sleep, and things people won't necessarily self-report, and you have something revolutionary. And AI is kinder and more compassionate, as the article said.
No wonder people have been trying to crack this nut for decades (albeit with minimal success). I hope the LLM revolution helps make another big round of progress.