The Elephant In The Room: AI & The Future of Medicine

I wanted to take a moment and talk about the elephant in the room. Recently, I had a conversation with a mentor of mine about the future of AI in medicine.

There seems to be a popular notion that physicians will be entirely replaced by powerful algorithms that can diagnose patients with greater accuracy.

In an article written in the Harvard Gazette, the author talks about how schools are responding to the AI in Medicine:

“It is no longer a conversation about, ‘Will AI replace doctors,’ so much as, ‘Will AI, with a set of clinicians who may not look like the clinicians that we’re used to, firm up the tottering edifice that is organized medicine?’” 

Physician Adam Rodman writes:

“The technology is not good enough to have that safety level where you don’t need a knowledgeable human,” Rodman said. “I can understand where it might have gone aground. I can take a step further with the diagnosis. I can do that because I learned the hard way. In residency you make a ton of mistakes, but you learn from those mistakes. Our current system is incredibly suboptimal but it does train your brain. When people in medical school interact with things that can automate those processes — even if they’re, on average, better than humans — how are they going to learn?”

This becomes problematic because AI is only as accurate as our current understanding of medicine. You'll need individuals who are constantly learning in order to grow our understanding of pathology.

Artificial intelligence will certainly reshape medicine. This much is clear. Here are some areas of opportunity for it's use in medicine:

1. Limit Administrative tasks (like prior authorization requests to insurers)

2. Patients getting second opinions on their diagnosis

3. Greater accuracy in diagnosis

4. Physicians will use it not to second guess themselves.

5. Automation and help with Note-taking and summarization of patient's conditions.

6. Greater Precision in Surgery - AI can detect the boundaries of cancerous cells removing only those cells.

What are AI's potential drawbacks:

1. Bias - what algorithms are taught is best practices maybe later revealed as incorrect information.

2. Hallucinations -- AI has had documented cases of inventing data and research.

What will all this mean for aspiring physicians. Predictions include the following:

1. AI will polarize medicine reshaping which specialties are more in demand.

2. Medicine may be more competitive than ever with more need for nurses or lower paying careers that can meet the same quality of care.

3. There will be a premium on research, understanding the basic sciences, and creativity. AI is data, it compiles and processes data and organizes information but you will still need research to take on problems outside the scope of existing information,.

4. There will be a premium on people skills. Individuals with people skills will still be patient facing. Patients are loyal to those they connect with. Those without the social skills necessary, may have difficulty with patients.

The human side of medicine will likely be essential in preventative medicine. Compare Artificial Intelligence with the sheer volume of information available on how to get in shape. There are Youtube videos, books, magazine articles, influencers on instagram all teaching you how to get in shape and lose weight. The information is endless. But still many people prefer a personal trainer with a human connection. They're looking for intangibles, things beyond two dimensional knowledge.

Artificial Intelligence will without doubt reshape medicine but the human need reaching out for an empathetic connection at times of illness and tragedy may be irreplaceable.

At The Pre-Med Academy, it's essential that we expose our students to trends in medicine. We do this by networking them with the most innovative physicians in their respective specialties, building meaningful relationships that provide the support beyond what powerful learning tools like Chat GPT can, and giving them experiences that will develop their skills and build their character.

Medical Education is no doubt becoming more competitive. AAMC recently published an article about the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence in the selection of medical students.

Artificial Intelligence may be used to filter and shift through applications making better decisions on who should get accepted into medical schools. Students will need to differentiate themselves now more than ever.