2019/04/04
AI, DDI, and Chat Bots
"Adapting chatbots to medicine has the potential to help millions, if not billions, of people around the world, right when they most need it. If you have a mobile phone, you have access to a doctor. Imagine the positive effect on people's lives with this equalising force. Especially in developing countries where doctors can be few and far between, or in developed countries where health care can be expensive and not immediate. Even if we can help to reduce people's anxiety about something going wrong with their body (or the body of someone in their care) until they can get to a doctor, that can be an immense relief of global suffering. Medical chatbots can offer relevant high-quality information, reassurance, answers, and ways of thinking about the situation that might be more useful. They would not replace human doctors, but they could help to set a new, increased standard of care. [...] A retrospective review in Geriatric Oncology found that 75% of [Cancer] patients had a potential drug–drug interaction. Pharmaceutial chatbots can be a resource for physicians, preventing these unintentional drug–drug interactions. Chatbots can also be useful as diagnosticians." Full article at The Lancet.
