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Re:Deep learning algorithm diagnoses skin cancer as well as ... by komali2 on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @02:20PM (#13484951)
I never thought doctors would be hit so soon by the automation/AI crisis, but this article challenges that thought. However, due to the state of robotics at the moment, surgeons for example aren't going anywhere for a good decade I'd estimate, and it's not like people can, in the mole example, self-remove a chunk of it for biopsy with 99% accuracy. Then there's treatment that has to be done at a hospital under monitor of professionals, etc.
Re:Deep learning algorithm diagnoses skin cancer as well as ... by _delirium on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @02:24PM (#13485003)
> I never thought doctors would be hit so soon by the automation/AI crisis

I think most people in AI are more surprised that it took this long. The tech has been there for decades for a pretty large percentage of routine diagnostics, especially carefully defined clinical-sample type diagnostics. People were pretty sure in the '80s that it'd all be automated soon, but it never managed to make it into actual hospitals so funding dried up. Mixture of bureaucracy, legal issues, patients not liking the idea of computer diagnosis, doctors not liking the idea of computer diagnosis, incentives, etc.

I think changes in all those "environmental" factors are likely to be the biggest boost to something like this getting deployed in practice. Tech advances are good as well, and will expand the range of diagnostics that can be automated, but there is already enough low-hanging fruit in medicine that is easy enough for any of a half-dozen AI techniques to do it, that I don't think tech is actually the bottleneck.

Re:Deep learning algorithm diagnoses skin cancer as well as ... by eva1984 on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @02:32PM (#13485099)
Well, with DL powered algorithm/device, people can pretty much practice self-diagnosis, and only under circumstances, where the model is predicting a higher risk, they can go to clinic to get the human treatment.

Overall AI will ease the demand for human doctors, maybe not overnight, but gradually yet quickly. Cheaper healthcare for all, thinner salary for doctors, I will say not a bad deal overall.