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Could modern medicine get so advanced that we wouldn’t even need doctors anymore? The answer is maybe. Google has been using deep learning technology that can diagnose diseases. So far, they are able to diagnose more accuracy than humans. Google has devised a way to use deep machine learning to teach neural network (essentially an simple artificial brain) how to detect diabetic retinopathy using photos from patient’s eyes. So google wanted to know how accurate it was compared to a human ophthalmologist. So they gave a opthalmologist and the deep thinking machine that google which has the algorithm to detect the diabetic retinopathy. Googles machine ended up being slightly more accurate. Currently, doctors already use a similar type of technology to find things like cancer, and heart disease. I think that having this technology is good and bad. Yes, it can be used to help eliminate cancer, but it also has the potential to eliminate our need for doctors. This would put millions of people out of work.
Another question we would have to ask is, “How much is this going to cost?” In general, nothing in the medical field is cheap. Right now, google hasn’t even had this signed off by the FDA for it to be used in the medical field. There is still ti,me for this invention to grow though. It is already able to detect diseases better than a doctor, soon they will be doing our surgeries thereby eliminating a whole industry.
Here’s a video saying that soon they will have developed a robot to be able to do all of our surgeries.
Hey John, this is definitely something that will become a huge topic in the future. However, I disagree that it is a possibility, at least in the ‘near’ future, for doctors to be replaced entirely with robots. I think there is and will still be a strong need for human compassion in hospitals. Not to mention how so many people are technophobic or uncomfortable with the idea of machines being in charge of their health. I, myself, would not mind relying on machines for diagnosis, since we do have some aspects of medicine that are already beginning to utilize and depend on technology, but would not be sure of allowing machines to take over caring for patients or performing surgeries.
In the end, I think the loss of human value to hospital care and the monetary cost of building the machines (perfectly, as these must be 100% functional to care for a human life) would take too long and be too much of a deficit on society. Here’s an article that lists some other professions machines can’t replace, along with health professionals.