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> You definitely want your doctor, optometrist, dentist to be licensed Expert systems have been beating doctors in correct diagnosis rates for years, yet the e

> You definitely want your doctor, optometrist, dentist to be licensed Expert systems have been beating doctors in correct diagnosis rates for years, yet the ego of physicians will not permit them to save more lives, in a fact reminiscent of "expert" fund managers trying to beat index funds and failing miserably. I'd love to see a study comparing physician diagnoses vs random-110-IQ-person-doing-a-Google-search diagnoses. My money would be firmly on the rando+Google. Additionally, doctors and their staff kill between 250k and 440k (depending on the estimate criteria) Americans annually via completely preventable medical errors, making them approximately as lethal as lung, breast, skin, colorectal, pancreatic, prostate, and liver cancer combined. The results of licensure in the field of medicine certainly leaves much to be desired. Unless I'm bleeding out or having a cardiovascular event, I'll take my chances with diet, exercise, Google and WebMD.

jariel 7y ago
WebMD and 'eating right'? This is beyond pale, I can't believe I'm reading this. Steve Jobs thought he was 'smarter than doctors' when they caught his pancreatic cancer quite early, but he decided to 'eat healthy' instead of starting treatment which could have saved him ... until it was too late? And you're talking about doctors egos? Now that's one giant dead ego. First - said 'expert systems' are only used in isolated trials, they're not applied in the field in general medicine which is much more complicated. Second - applied medicine is considerably more complicated than merely 'diagnosis'. Tell me which 'expert system' is going to remove your pancreatic cyst? Third - your statement about 'doctors killing people' is not only unsubstantiated, their 'error rate' does not qualify as the 'death rate' of any specific condition, clearly, you've misunderstood the data. Fourth - if we didn't have licensed medical doctors, people would be dying willy nilly of every kind of easily curable conditions, moreover, arrogant idiots who think they know more than doctors would be happy to sell all sorts of toxic medicine and procedures that actually cause considerable harm. Finally - this recommendation against modern medicine for anything other than major cardiac conditions is insulting, it's actually worse than anti-vax propaganda.

jariel 7y ago

WebMD and 'eating right'? This is beyond pale, I can't believe I'm reading this. Steve Jobs thought he was 'smarter than doctors' when they caught his pancreatic cancer quite early, but he decided to 'eat healthy' instead of starting treatment which could have saved him ... until it was too late? And you're talking about doctors egos? Now that's one giant dead ego. First - said 'expert systems' are only used in isolated trials, they're not applied in the field in general medicine which is much more complicated. Second - applied medicine is considerably more complicated than merely 'diagnosis'. Tell me which 'expert system' is going to remove your pancreatic cyst? Third - your statement about 'doctors killing people' is not only unsubstantiated, their 'error rate' does not qualify as the 'death rate' of any specific condition, clearly, you've misunderstood the data. Fourth - if we didn't have licensed medical doctors, people would be dying willy nilly of every kind of easily curable conditions, moreover, arrogant idiots who think they know more than doctors would be happy to sell all sorts of toxic medicine and procedures that actually cause considerable harm. Finally - this recommendation against modern medicine for anything other than major cardiac conditions is insulting, it's actually worse than anti-vax propaganda.