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Re:IBM’s Watson Now A Second-Year Med Student by DocSavage on Thursday May 26, 2011 @07:16PM (#2589785)
We'd still need surgeons until the robots are good enough. We'd need radiologists until they can add decent computer vision. Ditto for pathologists and other vision-intensive specialties. Orthopods are very hands-on and collect information through channels other than words. So there's a suite spot in the spectrum of doctors for something like Watson. I'd wonder about the ability to ask questions and ferret out socially-obvious problems like broken arms from abuse if Watson were a first provider.

Presumably you'd couple something like Watson with a world-savvy human physician assistant that acts as its eyes, ears, and touch.

Re:IBM’s Watson Now A Second-Year Med Student by carbocation on Thursday May 26, 2011 @07:24PM (#2589815)
To the extent that abuse is a medical diagnosis, it would be trivial for a computer to make that presumptive diagnosis. In fact, if Watson is truly performing at the level of an M2, it probably already can.
Re:IBM’s Watson Now A Second-Year Med Student by DocSavage on Thursday May 26, 2011 @09:18PM (#2590083)
Actually, I'd think the first signs of abuse would be the most difficult things for a computer to diagnose. Excuses are given, nobody says anything about violence, the person slipped, but the non-verbal cues might raise a red flag.

I'm not sure how much common sense world knowledge would be in Watson. "Hey doc, I got a pain in my chest while watching the football game vs Cal at Memorial Stadium." The DDX might include angina despite the computer being unlikely to know about a fan's emotions or environment of a football game.