[HN Gopher] A.I. Chatbots Defeated Doctors at Diagnosing Illness
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       A.I. Chatbots Defeated Doctors at Diagnosing Illness
        
       Author : vinni2
       Score  : 5 points
       Date   : 2024-11-17 21:27 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
        
       | blackeyeblitzar wrote:
       | This doesn't surprise me. When I see a doctor in real life, they
       | are moving patient to patient quickly and are always behind
       | schedule. I'm sure they are also losing lots of time to
       | submitting notes and administrative things. So they don't really
       | have time to deeply analyze my health situation. Multiple times
       | I've been the one to compare different test results, establish
       | patterns or correlations, perform research, and suggest possible
       | diagnoses or solutions to my doctor, who then double-checks my
       | work and accepts my theory or offers an alternative. This
       | collaborative approach has been helpful because there are many
       | conditions where you could mistakenly match symptoms to some
       | generic condition if you don't look at things more deeply. After
       | all, there is a very broad set of medical conditions out there
       | and a single doctor cannot reasonably be expected to know all of
       | them deeply.
       | 
       | But I've also had medical professionals, particularly the non
       | doctors (nurse practitioners, physicians assistants, etc) who are
       | much less receptive and more fixated on their first guess, which
       | has sometimes resulted in precious lost time and repeated visits
       | for me. The linked research finding is interesting, and I think
       | highlights the pitfall of professionals who believe too much in
       | their own expertise or gut feeling even when they've not really
       | examined the case carefully:
       | 
       | > The chatbot, from the company OpenAI, scored an average of 90
       | percent when diagnosing a medical condition from a case report
       | and explaining its reasoning. Doctors randomly assigned to use
       | the chatbot got an average score of 76 percent. Those randomly
       | assigned not to use it had an average score of 74 percent.
       | 
       | > The study showed more than just the chatbot's superior
       | performance.
       | 
       | > It unveiled doctors' sometimes unwavering belief in a diagnosis
       | they made, even when a chatbot potentially suggests a better one.
       | 
       | > And the study illustrated that while doctors are being exposed
       | to the tools of artificial intelligence for their work, few know
       | how to exploit the abilities of chatbots. As a result, they
       | failed to take advantage of A.I. systems' ability to solve
       | complex diagnostic problems and offer explanations for their
       | diagnoses.
        
       | mgh2 wrote:
       | https://archive.is/QT7QH#selection-659.0-659.52
       | 
       | 50 sample size not very reliable.
        
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       (page generated 2024-11-17 23:01 UTC)