Could Artificial Intelligence replace your doctor? Health

The role of the doctor could soon become redundant, overtaken by forms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) which will test, diagnose and treat disease just as well as any human medical professional could if not better, two doctors from New Zealand's Whangarei Hospital predict. This worldwide robotic vision of the future, estimated to be 10-to-20 years away, the editorial suggests doctors could be eradicated from the payroll with medical assistants, midwives and nurses filling the more human-based skill gaps that AI is unable to perform. An editorial, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal today, says the secret behind an AI takeover is a unique pattern-recognition algorithm that synthesises and compares a patient's data to predefined disease categories. Once a diagnosis is delivered, AI can then recommend an evidence-based treatment, specific to each patient. "Over the coming years, AI will challenge the traditional role of the doctor," the paper reads.