A.I. can be a game-changer for health care but convincing doctors, clinicians can be 'tricky'

Imagine a surgeon asking a Siri-like digital assistant in the operations theater about the options available in a risky operation, based on the patient's medical history matched with a global database of similar cases. The "assistant" comes up with several options in a split second and, the surgeon and his team, choose one that they think is best and proceed. This could be one of the many possibilities that an Artificial Intelligence or A.I. can provide to the healthcare sector. A.I. is poised to become a game changer for the health care sector, according to Steve Leonard, chief executive of SGInnovate, the government entity that supports entrepreneurs leading Singapore's innovation efforts. But convincing doctors, clinicians, nurses, patients and other stakeholders to place their trust in self-thinking machines could be tricky.