Do you think we're gonna be replaced?

Will artificial intelligence (AI) replace doctors and other clinicians? As both a doctor and a data scientist passionate about using AI, machine learning, and data analytics to improve healthcare and patient outcomes, I have conflicting thoughts and feelings on this topic. In fact, I have three very different views. Viewpoints 1 and 2 are those of an optimist or a pessimist, depending on how one looks at the issue. Viewpoint 3 is more pragmatic and nuanced, warranting further explanation.

Much discussion and debate surround the topic of physicians and the use of artificial intelligence. The notion that AI could ever fully replace a doctor is not a completely absurd one -- there are many jobs, including white-collar professions, that eventually will be replaced by automation and various levels of machine-learning technology. Certainly, from a pragmatic perspective, it is interesting to consider the possibility of a physician who never needs to eat, never tires, can read thousands of pages of new research every day, can record and remember every experience and can even communicate in multiple languages. But can a machine provide better patient care? In a recent Harvard Business Review article, authors Richard Susskind, chairman of the advisory board of the Oxford Internet Institute, and his son Daniel, an economics fellow at the University of Oxford's Balliol College, say that AI will not only support physicians in their work, but also ultimately replace them.

Increasingly, we see functions executed by machines that were formerly performed by living, breathing human beings. Will artificial intelligence invade the medical arena? The question is only how deeply it will invade. The role of the traditional physician is at risk of being marginalized as computer software hits the profession hard. Sure, computers cannot palpate an abdomen or perform a rectal exam -- yet.

Artificial intelligence is now being used to diagnose a common eye disease. The device, called IDx-DR, uses software and a retinal camera to take images of a patient's retina. It then uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to evaluate the images and effectively diagnose diabetic retinopathy, a diabetes complication that can lead to blindness. Developers hope this new device will make it easier for patients to get diagnosed outside of a clinical environment, leading perhaps to catching the condition earlier. The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics became the first to use the new technology in June, according to reports from The Gazette newspaper.

Much discussion and debate surround the topic of physicians and the use of artificial intelligence. The notion that AI could ever fully replace a doctor is not a completely absurd one -- there are many jobs, including white-collar professions, that eventually will be replaced by automation and various levels of machine-learning technology. Certainly, from a pragmatic perspective, it is interesting to consider the possibility of a physician who never needs to eat, never tires, can read thousands of pages of new research every day, can record and remember every experience and can even communicate in multiple languages. In a recent Harvard Business Review article, authors Richard Susskind, chairman of the advisory board of the Oxford Internet Institute, and his son Daniel, an economics fellow at the University of Oxford's Balliol College, say that AI will not only support physicians in their work, but also ultimately replace them. The argument that technology cannot be empathic is moot, they argue, and many aspects of professional work do not require compassion.