The last few pages of Charlotte Blease's book 'Dr Bot' are especially interesting as they look forward to what AI and health care might look like in the future.
Here are a few extracts:
'The best diagnostic tools may become paywalled with only the wealthiest patients in the richest regions gaining access'
'How do we ensure AI systems are reliable [and secure] for all patients, in all parts of the world?'
'Should we seek to carve out new clinician relationships with AI for the 21st century?'
'When we see doctors, their role may shift to becoming skilled interpreters of AI-driven advice'
'More advanced AI agents could one day become our personalized clinicians'
'Too often, debates around AI default to contrasting its performanceagainst the idealised luxury of the very best doctors... This is not the world most of us live in. The correct comparison for the global majority is not with AI versus prompt medical attention, it is with getting no medical attention at all.'
Having read the book I would like to raise two further points:
1. AI has the potential to dramatically improve the availability and use of *basic* healthcare information for self-care and care in the home and community, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (failure to apply basic information contributes most to avoidable deaths). Tools like ChatGPT are already hugely impressive in this respect and they will only become better. It is hard to imagine that such tools would not be available in the future to anyone with internet access (even if the 'best' tools are paywalled). In time, the majority of the world's population will be using these tools.
2. As more people witness and understand the power and accuracy of AI, trust in these tools will broaden and deepen. The general population will be progressively empowered whereas the minority who push disinformation will be weakened.
I look forward to read your thoughts.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org