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While I think IBM Watson will become a powerful tool for querying and hospital/insurance risk management, I'm not sure it will be replacing a doctor until MRI m

While I think IBM Watson will become a powerful tool for querying and hospital/insurance risk management, I'm not sure it will be replacing a doctor until MRI machines are a dime a dozen. What good is a medical query engine if the patient doesn't know how to describe what is wrong? If you are planning your child's career, take this into account; otherwise, it is just something new for the doctors to learn, like engineers learning CAD tools.

julespitt 13y ago
I've seem papers before where machine learning was able to compensate for both inaccuracy of measurement and outright falsehoods being reported, and overall was far more reliable than humans. Full Disclosure: I just read a paper saying that only 10% of doctors are capable of bayesian reasoning, so I'm in a mood to pick on doctors today. I'll stop now.
- hershel 13y ago
  Mind linking the paper?
PeterisP 13y ago
How big is a market for an expensive senior oncologist, if a doctor with twice shorter training (and half the school debt) can give the same results (by using the same Watson) while competing on price and friendliness?
- cowsandmilk 13y ago
  the increased emphasis on bed side manner at many of the top med schools indicates they agree with you.
TinyBig 13y ago
"What good is a medical query engine if the patient doesn't know how to describe what is wrong?" This implementation of Watson is more than a query engine; it returns a confidence interval with its diagnoses and "knows" which questions to ask to improve the confidence level in those diagnoses.
hershel 13y ago
Research on automated patient interview systems reveals two facts: 1. Doctors on average miss 50% of questions needed to be asked on a medical interview. 2. In general , people are less likely to lie to a machine, when they would lie to their doctors if dealing with some socially sensitive issues.

julespitt 13y ago

I've seem papers before where machine learning was able to compensate for both inaccuracy of measurement and outright falsehoods being reported, and overall was far more reliable than humans. Full Disclosure: I just read a paper saying that only 10% of doctors are capable of bayesian reasoning, so I'm in a mood to pick on doctors today. I'll stop now.

hershel 13y ago
Mind linking the paper?

PeterisP 13y ago

How big is a market for an expensive senior oncologist, if a doctor with twice shorter training (and half the school debt) can give the same results (by using the same Watson) while competing on price and friendliness?

cowsandmilk 13y ago
the increased emphasis on bed side manner at many of the top med schools indicates they agree with you.

TinyBig 13y ago

"What good is a medical query engine if the patient doesn't know how to describe what is wrong?" This implementation of Watson is more than a query engine; it returns a confidence interval with its diagnoses and "knows" which questions to ask to improve the confidence level in those diagnoses.

hershel 13y ago

Research on automated patient interview systems reveals two facts: 1. Doctors on average miss 50% of questions needed to be asked on a medical interview. 2. In general , people are less likely to lie to a machine, when they would lie to their doctors if dealing with some socially sensitive issues.