Are robots going to replace flesh-and-blood physicians in the future? This is the ongoing debate that is creating ripples in the healthcare industry right now. Well, there has always been some sort of skepticism when it comes to the use of Artificial Intelligence in the medical sector. Most physicians tend to believe that AI technology is overhyped. They don’t like the idea of machines dictating their decisions. But, looking at the fast-evolving healthcare delivery landscape, physicians are now rethinking more proactively about how they can improve care quality and patient experience.
Potential of AI in Healthcare
Though AI is still in the early phases of its development, it is already capable of assisting healthcare professionals in a variety of tasks. Since the early 2000s, surgical robots are being used to assist surgeons in performing delicate work with greater precision and flexibility. Today, AI-powered robots are quickly moving into other areas of healthcare for improving efficiency and patient healthcare outcomes. For instance, some robots are helping nursing staff with simple repetitive, and time-consuming tasks in hospitals. A robot called TUG can carry multiple racks of medicines and lab specimens to any location in the hospital. RIBA (Robot for Interactive Body Assistance) is another useful robot with strong human-like arms and sensors that are able to lift patients out of bed and carry them. Another relatively new, yet highly promising medical robot is nanobots that can be used to identify and attack cancer cells and safely remove foreign objects. Now, with the advent of next-generation physician robots both patients and healthcare professionals will reap tremendous benefits. The AI-enabled physicians can enhance patient engagement and care experience by delegating routine and mundane tasks such as ordering prescription refills and responding to patient queries with the support of AI algorithms. Using such robots for health care interactions is a promising way to curb in-person contact between health care workers and sick patients in this era of social distancing. In addition to providing much-needed support and relief to overwhelmed medical staff, robot physicians can work for long hours, and never call in sick. But would this mean that there is no need for medical professionals anymore? Of course not.
AI Vs. Human Doctors
The healthcare community should not fall for the fear-mongering around A.I. Yes, A.I. will be bigger than all other tech revolutions in the medical sector. But humans will always be needed. AI may offer brilliant solutions but how would it mimic empathy and compassion? Imagine a robot performing a critical surgery on a patient and for some unavoidable reason not able to save the life of the patient. How the robot is going to inform the patient’s family about this? The machine would probably just say, “Patient Status: Deceased.” This is not going to bode well for all, right? Showing empathy and compassion during such a trying time is something that we can’t expect from a robot.
Also, can we trust a robot or a smart algorithm when it comes to making life or death decisions? Even while taking blood samples, we need human doctors to hold our hands and guide us through therapy and overall support. An algorithm cannot replace that. Also, AI-driven robots and algorithms will never have the creativity and problem-solving skills that are required for diagnosing and treating a patient. While IBM Watson can easily scan through millions of pages in seconds, it won’t be able to do the Heimlich maneuver if a patient is choking. There will always be tasks that humans can do faster and more reliably and cost-effectively than technology.
So there you have it. AI physicians definitely hold the potential to change the healthcare landscape. But they are unlikely to completely replace human physicians any time soon. Instead, they could become significant partners for humans in reshaping modern health care.