I've been thinking about this for a while, in more general terms. Last year I had an issue with my eye. I bumped around from doctor to doctor (including one eye specialist) for nine months, for at least half of that period on two different antibiotics and a ten minute a day eye cleaning ritual. Finally when nothing seemed to be working I was bumped up to an eye doctor at a bigger hospital two hours away. Within a minute of seeing me, he had a diagnosis. It involved no medicine at all, cleared up the problem within 48 hours, and still seems to be working fine nearly ten months later.
My thinking is that a properly programed medical diagnosis expert system probably could have figured out the issue by the second or third trip to the doctor. Further, my guess is that a nurse who has been properly trained to use such a system would be at least as accurate as your average doctor.
Unfortunately, my next guess is that any such system would be opposed by the medical establishment and quickly sued into non-existence by patients it made mistakes on (even if the rate of such mistakes was significantly below that of normal doctors).
My thinking is that a properly programed medical diagnosis expert system probably could have figured out the issue by the second or third trip to the doctor. Further, my guess is that a nurse who has been properly trained to use such a system would be at least as accurate as your average doctor.
Unfortunately, my next guess is that any such system would be opposed by the medical establishment and quickly sued into non-existence by patients it made mistakes on (even if the rate of such mistakes was significantly below that of normal doctors).