Next? Unprescribed stimulants and test banks from Greek orgs has been the path to med school for generations. I guess we just cut to the chase by prescribing ADHD meds to everyone and making cheating tools openly available.
I once had a doctor google webmd in front of me at an appointment. It was funny, but then I remembered how often I look stuff up at work and thought it’s a bit unrealistic to expect them to have EVERYTHING memorized. I’d rather have them double check a hunch they have instead of holding back because they’re unsure
I had this thought the other day: why do we expect an immediate diagnosis? I can't imagine giving a decent answer to any advanced question without research.
I understand appointments have a time limit, but perhaps it would be beneficial to batch process this.
Because those off-the-shelf solutions only work for very obvious and basic cases, and you don't know what you don't know. Meaning, if you have a more complex medical situation, you wouldn't be able to tell, so you wouldn't know if the off-the-shelf solution is wrong.
Also, we still need doctors to perform physical tasks, like surgery. The doctors diagnosing stuff and the doctors performing surgery aren't different doctors, usually. When I got diagnosed with Testicular cancer, the urologist who felt my balls up and said "yeah, this ain't right" was also the one who removed the testicle. And, he wasn't the first doctor I went to - the other doctor clearly had not felt up enough balls. He said it could be X, could be Y, maybe Z. Not the urologist, he knew right away. So, I think it's more complex.
It's funny. During tax season this year, I was engaging with several "tax professionals" from H&R Block in order to answer some, hopefully elementary, questions about my tax situation. And you know what, I could never ever get a straight or clear or definitive answer from them! It was infuriating. It seemed that my business was too small or insignificant to them to bother. They missed appointments and most of their branches were closed. I believe that they're a significantly understaffed industry.
When I finally got an in-person tête-a-tête, the guy was just Googling stuff -- I mean he was not even looking on IRS.gov, just Google -- and I got so pissed I walked right out.
So ironically, the best advice I found, the best distillation of good information, was through Google's Gemini LLM. I asked Gemini many tax questions, and it was able to cogently answer them with correct terminology, and enough correct advice that I was able to navigate the IRS.gov publications and corroborate them from the horse's mouth.
So at this point I feel like engaging an LLM in particular topics is far more productive than engaging a human on the front-lines. The humans are poorly trained, underpaid, overworked, and unreliable.
H&R tax people are on minimum wage plus commission. Also, for a lot of them the work is seasonal: crazy hours for a couple months every year, then barely any work until next tax season.
You don't pay your doctors, insurance does, so I mostly expect insurance will replace doctors with chatbots as soon as its feasible. Sadly in a large percentage of scenarios that would actually be an improved outcome. (yes, not all and those are the ones that will probably kill you... but come on, medicine is such a disaster its should be completley rebooted)
>Sadly in a large percentage of scenarios that would actually be an improved outcome.
I predict triage will be converted to AI who will be able to offer minor prescriptions, stuff unavailable to over the counter, without doctor oversight. Like allergies, rashes, insect stuff, fungal or worms. Will likely be able to reduce medical load by treating people who just need to be sent to get over the counter stuff.
> but come on, medicine is such a disaster its should be completley rebooted)
Agreed, but is AI the right move? Do you really want to be the first one to try it?
Asthma inhalers (at least, some types) are available over the counter here.
As far as I know, only "narcotics" (opiates, psychostimulants...) require regular check-ins (due to byzantine legislation) - but even that's been worked around with one-click refill requests and telehealth.
The types available over the counter are unsafe for long term use and frankly worse in every way compared to the one you need a doctors permission to purchase.
You need a established relationship to access one click refill and telehealth, they will tell you to come in after a time.
